Peter Bol

Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Director of the Center for Geographic Analysis

Peter K. Bol is the Charles H. Carswell Professor East Asian Languages and Civilizations and the Director of the Center for Geographic Analysis. His research focuses on intellectual, social, and cultural change in China. For the past several years he has worked with Harvard students to document changes in local Chinese culture and society from the twelfth century into the present. He directs the China Historical Geographic Information Systems project, collaboration between Harvard and Fudan University in Shanghai to create a GIS for Chinese history. He has lectured widely in the China, Taiwan, and Japan, as well as in the United States.
 
He is the author of or a contributor to Neo-Confucianism in History, 11th -17th Century (forthcoming), The Song-Yuan-Ming Transition in Chinese History (2003), Ways with Words (2000), Culture and the State in Chinese History (1998), Energizing China: Reconciling Protection And Economic Growth (1998), "This Culture of Ours": Intellectual Transitions in T'ang and Sung China (1992), Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Sung Dynasty China (1992), and Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching (1990), as well as various articles on intellectual and cultural history. Bol was recently named a Walter Channing Cabot Fellow. The annual award recognizes tenured faculty members for distinguished accomplishment in the fields of literature, history, or art.