Yuan Gao
Assistant Professor
About
Yuan Gao is an Assistant Professor of Chinese History at Case Western Reserve University. She received her Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University in 2024. Prior to that, she received M.A. in Eurasian studies at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. Yuan is an environmental historian of northwestern China and Central Eurasia. Her research focuses on the intersection of empires, economic extraction, and environment, with a particular emphasis on the Eurasian borderlands of Qing China and imperial Russia. She is currently working on a book manuscript, tentatively entitled Tigers and Locusts: Environmental Changes in Late Qing Xinjiang. Through the extinction of Caspian tigers and recurring locust plagues, this project tells stories of environmental changes in Xinjiang under Qing rule in the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Moreover, by situating this arid region globally, Yuan argues that the environment of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang played a pivotal role in shaping the global discourse on arid land, desiccation, and the intricate relationship between humans and nature. Yuan’s research is supported by fellowships and grants from Georgetown University, Yale University, Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, UNESCO Silk Roads Youth Program, the Cosmos Club, and OYCF-Chow Fellowships.