Peter K. Bol

Peter K. Bol, the Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, has established himself as a preeminent scholar in Chinese history and digital humanities. After earning his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1980, he has dedicated his career to understanding China's cultural elites from the Tang to Ming dynasties. His groundbreaking works include "This Culture of Ours: Intellectual Transitions in T'ang and Sung China" and "Neo-Confucianism in History," which have fundamentally shaped the field of Chinese intellectual history. As Harvard's Vice Provost (2013-2018), he revolutionized digital learning through HarvardX and co-developed ChinaX with William Kirby, reaching over 45,000 students globally. His innovative contributions extend to founding the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis and directing major digital initiatives like the China Historical Geographic Information System and the China Biographical Database, which contains information on 470,000 historical figures. Bol's expertise spans multiple languages including Chinese, Japanese, and English, and his research has earned widespread recognition for combining traditional scholarship with cutting-edge digital methodologies