Mary Clabaugh Wright (born Mary Oliver Clabaugh; Chinese name 芮瑪麗 Ruì Mǎlì; September 25, 1917 – June 18, 1970) was an American historian and sinologist who specialized in the study of late Qing dynasty and early twentieth century China.
[2] On July 6, 1940 she married Arthur F. Wright, who was a graduate student studying Chinese and Japanese history at Harvard University, and the two of them immediately went to Asia to carry out research for their PhDs.
Fairbank characterized her style as "accumulating an avalanche of bits and pieces, mixed rarities and handouts; sorting and listing and getting them properly packed actually shipped, meanwhile keeping all in mind and communicating the results.
[2] In 1959 Arthur and Mary Wright both accepted positions as associate professors in the history department at Yale University.
Mary's appointment made her the first woman to gain tenure in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale University.
[6] The historian Paul A. Cohen in his Discovering History in China notes that Wright, Teng Ssu-yu, Albert Feuerwerker, and Joseph R. Levenson, all students of Fairbank in the decade following the war, were leaders in promoting the paradigm embodied in "China's Response to the West."