Fellows

Yadi Wen is a scholar in the field or history and archaeology. She received her MPhil and PhD in History from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has been engaged in the study of prehistoric nephrite jade crafting technology. Extensive initial studies and on-site investigations has been conducted in China and Russian Siberia. Through obtaining a one-year graduate-level training in Mesoamerican Archaeology at Harvard University, she developed a new research interest in Mesoamerican jades. She has conducted initial studies on Maya jades from the Sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and Olmec jades at Dumbarton Oaks. Special attention has been paid to cross-cultural comparison of jade-using communities, identifying the culturally regularities and diversities, defining as technological, social, and symbolic behavior. Her long-term research interest is the study of jades and jade using communities from East Asia and Mesoamerica, both for comparative purpose and as separate fields.