Lei Lin

Lei Lin is the Assistant Professor of History at Duke Kunshan University. She specializes in pre-modern and early modern Chinese history, with a particular emphasis on the Qing Empire (1644–1911). Her research interests encompass frontiers and borderlands, inter-polity relations, material culture, and the ways in which these issues informed empire-building. Using the methodologies of transnational history and empire studies, her research extends beyond the confines of modern nation-states and examines the position of the trans-Himalayan region in global history through a framework of comparative imperialism. Her scholarship draws on sources in multiple languages, including Chinese, Manchu, Tibetan, and Nepali, collected through extensive archival research conducted in Beijing, Taipei, Lhasa, and Kathmandu. She is currently completing her first monograph, titled “The Limits of Empire: The Qing-Gurkha War and China’s Trans-Himalayan Frontier, 1788–1793.”

Lin’s research has received generous support from prestigious institutions, including the American Historical Association, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard Asia Center, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the Fung Foundation, and the Henry Luce Foundation.

Lei Lin holds dual B.A. degrees in History and Economics from Renmin University of China, as well as an M.A. in Regional Studies—East Asia and a Ph.D. in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies from Harvard University.

林蕾是昆山杜克大学历史学助理教授。她专攻前现代与近现代中国史，尤其专注于清朝（1644–1911），研究领域包括边疆史、国际关系、物质文化，以及这些因素如何影响了帝国构建。在跨区域史和帝国研究的方法论框架下，她的研究超越了现代国族国家的限制，通过帝国比较研究的视角，探讨了跨喜马拉雅地区在全球史中的地位。她的学术研究利用了多种语言的文献，包括中文、满文、藏文和尼泊尔文，先后在北京、台北、拉萨和加德满都进行过档案研究。林教授目前正在完成她的第一部专著《帝国的界限：清廓战争与中国的跨喜马拉雅边疆（1788–1793年）》。

林蕾的研究已获得多个知名机构的慷慨支持，包括美国历史协会（AHA）、美国学术团体协会（ACLS）、社会科学研究理事会（SSRC）、费正清中国研究中心、哈佛亚洲中心、赖肖尔日本研究所、冯氏基金会和亨利·卢斯基金会。

林蕾获得中国人民大学历史与经济学双学士学位、哈佛大学东亚区域研究硕士学位、内亚与阿尔泰研究博士学位。