Overview
Wenrui Zhao is a Postdoctoral Associate in the History Department at Cornell University. She received her PhD in history from Columbia University. Wenrui is a historian of early modern Europe, with a particular interest in the visual and material culture of science and medicine and the production of natural knowledge in intercultural encounters.
Wenrui is also committed to excellence in teaching and learning. At Cornell, she is involved in the Active Learning Initiative. She has implemented active learning strategies in a wide range of courses at the History Department and organized pedagogical workshops for faculties and graduate students.
Research Focus
Her current book project, The Eye and the Art of Medicine in Early Modern Germany, examines the ways in which artisans and surgeons, through their investigations of the eye’s anatomy, physiology, and pathology, shaped new ways of seeing. Her second book project, German Artisans in the East Indies, studies the German artisanal and scientific practitioners – such as surgeons, miners, and painters – who traveled to Asia under the Dutch East India Company, uncovering the role of their practical expertise in the knowledge culture of Dutch overseas enterprises.
Wenrui’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Dan David Foundation, Leopoldina Centre for Science Studies, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Herzog August Bibliothek, and Newberry Library, among others.