Joseph McDermott is an Emeritus Reader in Chinese History of St John’s College, University of Cambridge. He received a PhD in Chinses History from the University of Cambridge in 1979. He has taught at St. John’s University, University of California, Berkeley, International Christian University in Tokyo. After having taught in the Faculty for 25 years, McDermott retired in 2015. 

He is the Regional Editor of International Journal of Asian Studies; Honorary Curator of the Tōyō Bunko, Tokyo; Member of External Review Committee for the Institute of Oriental Culture and Member of Higher Education Research Assessment Committee of Hong Kong. His research focus on Chinese social, economic, and cultural history, mainly during the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. His publications include The Making of a New Rural Order in South China: Volume 2, Merchants, Markets, and Lineages, 1500-1700 (forthcoming); The Book Worlds of East Asia and Europe, 1450–1850: Connections and Comparisons (2015); The Making of a New Rural Order in South China: Volume 1: I. Village, Land, and Lineage in Huizhou, 900 – 1600 (2013); A Social History of the Chinese Book: Books and Literati Culture in Late Imperial China (2006).