University of Virginia graduate Abigail Barr will probe Mao Zedong’s place in history at Yenching Academy of Peking University in Beijing, a place with which she is already quite familiar.
The Prattville, Alabama, native graduated from UVA on Saturday with a distinguished major in history, an additional major in philosophy and a minor in Chinese language and literature. She will pursue a master’s degree in history at Yenching Academy.
Academics in China will not be a totally new experience for Barr, who studied at Peking University in 2025.
“I greatly enjoyed my time studying abroad at Peking University, and it feels like a dream come true to be returning there in the fall,” she said. “I consider myself very fortunate to have been offered such a rare opportunity, and I intend to make the most of it, both professionally and personally.”
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Her UVA honors history thesis “analyzes the complex intersection of revolutionary rhetoric, ritual and praxis in 20th-century China, as well as the grassroots reception and dissemination of Mao Zedong thought,” she said.
“On the history and archaeology track at the Yenching Academy, I hope to use a rigorous interdisciplinary approach that integrates history, philosophy and cultural studies in order to understand how Maoism may have evolved into a distinct form of political religion between 1942 and 1968,” Barr said.
Barr applied through a nomination process administered by UVA’s Office of Citizen Scholar Development. She will be UVA’s third scholar at Yenching Academy, and one of 124 scholars from around the world who will enroll in the interdisciplinary China studies master’s program at Peking University in September.
Peking University established the Yenching Academy in 2014 to promote academic study of China beyond traditionally defined humanities and social sciences through a specially designed, English-taught master’s program. The academy provides full fellowships to its scholars and offers them a wide array of interdisciplinary courses on China within broadly defined fields of the humanities and social sciences.
The honor is well-earned, two of her UVA professors said.
“Abigail studied with impressive motivation and work ethic,” said Ran Zhao, professor of Chinese and director of the Chinese language program in the UVA Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. “She consistently went above and beyond with each assignment, doing more than required and producing top-notch work. She also demonstrated a very mature mindset toward feedback, which contributed to her rapid progress.”
