James P Geiss and Margaret Y Hsu Foundation
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About James P Geiss and Margaret Y Hsu Foundation
The Geiss and Hsu Foundation concentrates its giving on humanities scholarship about early modern East Asia—especially Ming China—by funding fellowships, specialized courses, workshops, and small research grants at universities and scholarly centers. Grants are project- and personnel-focused (postdoctoral fellowships, named fellowships, course support, and research grants), typically routed to academic institutions, rare-book/special-collections programs, and humanities centers rather than to broad community services.
Focus Areas
Ming Dynasty Studies and Early Modern East AsiaPostdoctoral and Named Fellowships in the HumanitiesRare Book / Special Collections–based courses and research (e.g., Rare Book School)Academic workshops and curricular programs on East Asian historyUniversity research grant programs and library-based fellowships
Who They Fund
postdoctoral and early-career scholarssenior academic researchers and journal editorstranslators and scholarly editors
About James P Geiss and Margaret Y Hsu Foundation
James P Geiss and Margaret Y Hsu Foundation Inc concentrates on humanities scholarship about early modern East Asia, with a particular emphasis on Ming China. Its recent grants support postdoctoral fellowships, rare-book and special-collections teaching, workshops, journals, exhibitions, translation projects, and open-access publication in universities and scholarly organizations. The largest recent award in the data is $72,944 to the University of British Columbia for the Geiss-Hsu Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ming Studies, a two-year postdoctoral appointment for a scholar working on the Ming dynasty or a closely related field. Another substantial grant of $60,000 supported a Geiss Hsu fellow at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The foundation’s funding pattern favors academic infrastructure rather than general operating support. It backs named fellowships, research grants, and program-specific awards that move through university libraries, presses, and humanities centers. In the recent grants list, Princeton University Library received support for research grants, while Rare Book School received funding for a course on books in Ming China at Princeton. The foundation also supports scholarly communication through journal editorship, book prizes, and translation-based publishing projects.
What James P Geiss and Margaret Y Hsu Foundation Funds
One major thread is postdoctoral training in Ming studies. The foundation gave $72,944 to the University of British Columbia for the Geiss-Hsu Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ming Studies, and $60,000 to the National Humanities Center for a Geiss Hsu fellow. A second area is teaching and research built around rare books and special collections: Rare Book Arts Press/Rare Book School received $57,000 for the course “Books in Ming China, a Rare Book School Course at Princeton,” and Princeton University Library received $27,000 for foundation-supported research grants. The foundation also supports scholarly exchange and public-facing humanities work. Michigan State University received $28,404 for a workshop on “Failure, Maintenance, Recycling, and Transport in Early Modern East Asia,” while the University of North Carolina at Charlotte received $14,805 for the conference “China on the Move.” In publishing, the foundation backed open-access and translation projects at University of Washington Press and Columbia University Press.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$260K
Total Assets
$5.5M
Total Revenue
$271K
Total Expenses
$313K
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $7K and $17K, with a median of $10K.
25th Percentile
$7K
Median
$10K
75th Percentile
$17K
Geographic Reach
National16 states funded
About 12% of grants go to recipients in MA.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Where James P Geiss and Margaret Y Hsu Foundation Funds
Top 6 recipient countries by grant volume for James P Geiss and Margaret Y Hsu Foundation.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 46 | $630K | 85.2% |
| 2 | Canada |
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