Weitian Yan’s research focuses on the history of Chinese calligraphy. He received his PhD in art history from the University of Kansas in 2022. His dissertation “Envisioning Antiquity: Yi Bingshou (1754–1815) and the Politics of Memory in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)” examines how antiquarian scholars of late imperial China appropriated artistic traditions, especially engraved writings on ancient monuments, to negotiate political, cultural, and societal problems of their day. In 2020, he was awarded a Smithsonian Institution Fellowship to study the collection of later Chinese calligraphy at the National Museum of Asian Art. His most recent article on the Pei Cen Stele, a second-century monument in Barköl, Xinjiang, is featured in the peer-reviewed journal Ming Qing Yanjiu. During his time at Syracuse University, Weitian will be teaching courses on the arts of East Asia.