Valerie Hansen
Professor of History, Yale University
Harvard University, BA; University of Pennsylvania, MA, PhD
Professor Valerie Hansen’s current research examines the interconnected world of the year 1000, exploring the goods, people, and ideas that traveled from one region to another in a time with no mechanised transport. Her main research goal is to draw on non-traditional sources to capture the experience of ordinary people. Hansen is particularly interested in how sources buried in the ground, whether intentionally or unintentionally, supplement the detailed official record of China’s past. Her books include The Silk Road: A New History, The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600, Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China, Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1279, and Voyages in World History (co-authored with Kenneth R. Curtis).