Associate Professor of History Yulian Wu has been awarded a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in the School of Historical Studies for the 2025-26 academic year. This prestigious membership allows for focused research and the free and open exchange of ideas among an international community of scholars at one of the foremost centers for intellectual inquiry.
During her stay, Wu will work on her research surrounding nephrite jade, the most coveted luxury mineral in Qing China (1644–1912), the last imperial dynasty in China.
“During my fellowship year at IAS, I plan to advance the research and writing of my book, Gemstones for Governance: The Jade Industry and the Construction of Empire in Early Modern China,” said Wu. “I am honored to be a fellow at IAS and I am grateful to the History Department at MSU for its support, which enables me to focus fully on research and writing.”
Each year, IAS welcomes more than 250 of the most promising postdoctoral researchers and distinguished scholars from around the world to advance fundamental discovery as part of an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment.
Visiting scholars are selected through a highly competitive process for their bold ideas, innovative methods and deep research questions by the permanent faculty — each of whom are preeminent leaders in their fields. Past IAS faculty include Albert Einstein, Erwin Panofsky, John von Neumann, Hetty Goldman, George Kennan and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Located in Princeton, N.J., the Institute for Advanced Study was established in 1930. Today, research at IAS is conducted across four schools — Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science — to push the boundaries of human knowledge.
Among past and present scholars, there have been 37 Nobel laureates, 46 of the 64 Fields Medalists and 24 of the 28 Abel Prize laureates, as well as MacArthur and Guggenheim fellows, winners of the Turing Award and the Wolf, Holberg, Kluge and Pulitzer Prizes.
This story originally appeared on the Department of History website.
