Ruiying Gao named National Humanities Center Fellow

Assistant Professor Ruiying Gao has been named a National Humanities Center (NHC) Fellow. The center recently announced the appointment of 32 Fellows for the 2025–26 academic year.

Chosen from 588 applicants, the fellows represent humanistic scholarship in African American studies; Africana studies; anthropology; Caribbean studies; history; history of art and architecture; history of the book; studies of languages and literature; medieval studies; music history and musicology; philosophy; religious studies; and theater, dance, and performance studies. Each Fellow will work on an individual research project and will have the opportunity to share ideas in seminars, lectures, and conferences at the National Humanities Center.

Gao teaches East Asian Art at Wake Forest. Her research fields include intersections of natural history and pictorial arts, book culture, and women artists. Her current project examines the social history of materia medica images in the Ming dynasty of China (1368-1644). In addition to her expertise in painting history, Gao is also interested in Japanese prints, Chinese bronze culture, and interregional transmissions of art within and beyond East Asia. 

Her research has been supported by the Bei Shan Tang Foundation, the Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies, the Getty Foundation, and the Hall Center for Humanities. 

Read more about the National Humanities Center Fellowship, here.