Dr. James C. Meador is a linguistic anthropologist and anthropological historian of Sino-Russian borderlands studying the social semiotics of empire. Their work examines Russian, Chinese, and Manchu language materials to understand imperial diversity through processes of contact and social transformation. Their dissertation project Making Chinese Orthodox reconstructed the origins and union of two independent traditions of Orthodox Christianity in China through the bilateral Russian and Chinese state-sponsored revival of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church. Their other research engages social semiotic theory through case studies of religion and multilingualism in empire: Russian Orthodox missionary work in Asia, Soviet Chinese literacy campaigns, extraterritorial Manchu settlements in the Russian Far East, Sino-Russian pidgins, and the Qing Empire’s Board of Colonial Dependencies. They hold a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan and a BA in Religious Studies and Russian from Reed College.