Daria Berg holds British and German nationality.

She read Chinese Studies as her main subject and English Literature, Japanese Studies, Chinese Art History and German as subsidiary subjects at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. In 1986 she obtained a diploma in Modern and Classical Chinese Language and Literature from Fudan University, Shanghai, as a scholar of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). She was awarded further diplomas in Modern and Classical Chinese Literature and Philosophy from Fu Jen University, Taipeh (Taiwan) and the Mandarin Daily News Language Training Center, Taipeh, in 1987.

Doctorate at Oxford University
In 1988 in Oxford, she obtained a Master of Letters in Chinese Studies with a thesis on China’s political philosophy in the 17th century. She then started to work on her doctorate in Chinese Studies with a thesis on China’s cultural history and literature of the 17th century. From 1990 to 1992, she spent two years in Japan for purposes of research. In 1990 and 1991, she completed an Intermediate and an Advanced Japanese Language Intensive Course in Tokyo. The University of Kyoto awarded her a Certificate for Postgraduate Research in Chinese Literature and History in 1992. In 1995, she obtained a doctor’s degree from Oxford University with her thesis on The Xingshi yinyuan zhuan: A Study of Utopia and the Perception of the World in 17th-Century China. At Oxford University, she was a scholar of the British Academy, of St. Hugh’s College (University of Oxford) and of the German National Academic Foundation.

Research fellow, tutor and part-time lecturer at Oxford University
From 1992 to 1995, she was a part-time tutor in Classical Chinese Literature and Early Modern Vernacular Literature for various colleges at Oxford University. Again as a part-time tutor, she taught Modern Chinese Literature to students of the American Sarah Lawrence College at Oxford University in 1994 and 1995. From 1994 to 1998, she was a part-time Research Fellow at Oxford University and Taiwan National University in Taipei with a project about Taiwan’s original inhabitants (together with Prof. David Faure). In 1994/95, she was Randall-MacIver Junior Research Fellow for Chinese Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford University. In 1995, she was a part-time lecturer in Classical Chinese at Oxford University.

Full Tenure in Chinese Studies at the Universities of Durham and Nottingham
Daria Berg was a full-time Lecturer in Chinese Studies in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Durham from 1995 to 2005. From 1995 onwards, she alone was responsible for doctoral students in Chinese Studies. In 1998, she was given full tenure (comparable to a former C3 professorship). In 2005 to 2006, this was followed by full tenure (comparable to a C3 professorship) in Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Chair of Chinese Culture and Society
From 2007 to 2011, she taught as Associate Professor of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. At the University of St.Gallen, she is the first Professor of the Chair of Chinese Culture and Society.

Wide range of publications

Prof. Dr. Daria Berg is an internationally reputed academic with an extensive and varied list of publications ranging from analyses of specific texts and epochs and works on fundamental issues of Chinese society to present-day questions of contemporary culture and the internet era in China. Her research focuses on the field of contemporary Chinese culture, contemporary literature, the internet culture and media history, as well as the history of Chinese literature and culture of the early modern era (Ming and Qing era, 16th-20th centuries) and the modern era (20th-21st centuries). Her latest book examines the world of the literati and of the literary and artistic creation of women poets in early modern China. Her present research focuses on the nexus between literature, art, politics and commerce in 21st century China.