Wenrui Zhao | Assistant Professor
Wenrui Zhao
Assistant Professor
CTIHB 347
About
Wenrui Zhao is a historian of science and medicine, with a focus on early modern northern Europe and its connections with the wider world, particularly Asia. Her research explores the intersection between arts and sciences and the conditions under which knowledge of nature was produced across cultures. Her first 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 Southeast Asia in the employ of the Dutch East India Company. Wenrui is also committed to excellence in teaching and learning. She has extensive experience in implementing active learning strategies across a wide range of history courses.
Education
Ph.D., History, Columbia University
M.A., History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art
B.Economics & Finance, University of Hong Kong
Research Focus
Early modern Germany and the Low Countries; history of science and medicine; visual and material culture; Europe and Asia
Key Publications
“The Making of Early Modern Eye Models.” Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, 2023, 1-27.
“Serving the Eye, Serving the Soul: Religion and Healing in Georg Bartisch’s Ophthalmodouleia (1583)” in Javier López Rider, ed., The Search for Wellbeing and Health between the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (Archaeopress, 2023), 80-97.
“Reverse Painting on Glass” in Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France: A Digital Critical Edition and English Translation of BnF Ms. Fr. 640, edited by Making and Knowing Project, Pamela H. Smith, Naomi Rosenkranz, Tianna Helena Uchacz, Tillmann Taape, Clément Godbarge, Sophie Pitman, Jenny Boulboullé, Joel Klein, Donna Bilak, Marc Smith, and Terry Catapano. New York: Making and Knowing Project, 2020.
“When Deeper isn’t Better: A Mining Misadventure in Early Modern Sumatra,” Environmental History Now (June 26, 2025).
Teaching
HIST 3100 The Historian’s Craft
Awards
2025: Paul Oskar Kristeller Fellowship, Renaissance Society of America
2025: Junior Fellow, Vossius Center for the History of Humanities and Sciences, University of Amsterdam
2025: Herzog Ernst Scholarship, Gotha Research Center, University of Erfurt
2025: Research Travel Award, Forum on Early-Modern Empires and Global Interactions (FEEGI)
2020: Dr. Günther Findel-Stiftung Fellowship, Herzog August Bibliothek
2019: National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant
2019: Johann-Lorenz-Bausch Stipendium, Leopoldina Akademie Freundeskreis
2019: Santorio Fellowship for Medical Humanities and Science, Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR)
2018: Dan David Prize Scholarship for Young Researchers in History of Science
2018: GSAS International Travel Fellowship, Columbia University
2018: Duke University Rubenstein Library History of Medicine Travel Grants
2009–2012: Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarship