Deirdre Sabina Knight, Ph.D

Sabina Knight holds degrees in Chinese and comparative literature and writes on questions of ethics and bioethics as addressed in fiction and film. A specialist in twentieth-century Chinese fiction, she also studies French, Russian and traditional Chinese literature, as well as classical Chinese and Western philosophy.

Professor Knight has studied abroad in Taiwan, Beijing, France, and the former Soviet Union, and she taught at UC-Berkeley and UW-Madison before joining the Smith faculty in 1998. Her first book The Heart of Time: Moral Agency in Twentieth-Century Chinese Fiction (Harvard, 2006) explores how literary narratives reproduce or challenge deterministic paradigms that influence possibilities for political, social and economic change. Professor Knight is also a Research Associate at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. Her current research focuses on narratives of aging, illness and disability.

Her courses include "Modern Chinese Literature" (EAL 232), "Modernity: East and West" (EAL 236), "Literature from Taiwan," (EAL 238), "Health and Illness: Literary Explorations" (EAL 260), "Major Themes in Literature: East-West Perspectives" (EAL 261), "The Literary Traditions of East Asia" (EAL 100), Mandarin Chinese, and seminars in contemporary Chinese women’s fiction (EAL 360), including, most recently, "Intimacy: Dreams, Disappointments and Practices of Desire" (EAL 360).

Office Hours: Tuesdays 3-4 & Thursdays 10:45-11:45, or by appointment
Phone: (413) 585 - 3548
Office: Neilson 2/14
Email: dsknight@email.smith.edu