Xavier Ante is a historian of early modern China and East Asia. His current book project studies the economic, social, and political incorporation of the Qingshui river basin in southeastern Guizhou province from the Qing dynasty to the Republican period through its forest industry and elite intermediaries. Using non-state “popular documents” written and preserved by local subjects, this book affirms the broad outlines of the state expansionist model of environmental change, arguing that state capacity to maintain property rights and popular welfare, accommodations to forest cultivators, changing technical requirements from consumers, and shifts in commodity market integration were under-appreciated factors that had an impact in the long-run viability of a timber export based economy. He received his Ph.D from the University of Chicago’s Department of History in 2025, and his bachelor’s degree from New York University Shanghai in 2018.