Profile
Yun Ni received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2019 and subsequently joined the Department of English at Peking University. Her research integrates medieval English and French literature, classical philology, and intellectual history to reconsider images, legal thought, and institutional authority in the later medieval period. Her monograph, Constructive Iconoclasm (Brill, 2025), reframes debates over medieval imagery across England and France. A former Radcliffe Scholar, she has received national and university research grants to support her comparative projects since her appointment at Peking University. Her current work extends to civil and foreign wars in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England and France, as well as to comparative studies of medieval Chinese poetry, with a particular focus on political, social, and cultural exchanges in the global medieval world.
Education
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Ph.D., Comparative Literature (Secondary Field: Classical Philology), 2019
M.A., English Literature, 2014
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
M.A., Comparative Literature, 2012
Peking University, Beijing, China
M.A., English Literature, 2011
Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China
B.A., English Literature (Major); German Language and Literature (Minor), 2008
Academic Employment
Peking University, Beijing, China
Associate Professor of English (with Tenure), 2026–present
Assistant Professor of English, 2019–2026
Research Interests
Medieval Studies
1. Medieval English literature; Old French literature; Medieval Latin literature
2. Theology, Mysticism, intellectual history, and the history of ideas
3. Medieval Chinese poetry; cross-cultural literary comparison
Classical Philology
1. Latin and Greek literature
2. Latin paleography, codicology, and textual criticism
3. Historical linguistics
Critical Theory and Intellectual Traditions
1. Critical theory and hermeneutics
2. German Idealist philosophy
Additional Fields
1. Classical Chinese philosophy
2. World literature and the Global Middle Ages
3. Digital humanities
Honors and Awards
1. Peking University 2025 Teaching and Research Award – Wang Xuan Young Scholar Prize (the university’s top award recognizing exceptional achievement in teaching and research among junior scholars) (2025)
2. New Oriental Young Scholar Award, awarded for outstanding early-career scholarship (2025)
3. Weiming Scholar, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Peking University (Honorary Title) (2024)
4. Peking University Research Fellowship for Junior Faculty (2020–2022)
5. Postdoctoral Fellowship, Society of Fellows in the Humanities, University of Hong Kong (declined) (2019–2021)
6. Radcliffe Institute Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Harvard University (2017–2018)
7. Radcliffe Institute Travel Grant, Harvard University (2018)
8. GSAS Merit/Term-Time Research Award, Harvard University (2016–2017)
9. General Fellowship in Medieval Latin, University of Notre Dame / Dartmouth College (2012)
10. Tuition and Stipend Fellowship, M.A. Program in Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College (2011–2012)
Selected Publications
Monograph
Constructive Iconoclasm: The Late Medieval Image Debate in English and French Literature, 1160–1500 (Leiden: Brill, 2025). Publisher’s Page: https://brill.com/display/title/73307
Peer-reviewed Articles
1. “Reinventing Rule: The Queen’s Two Bodies in Clemence of Barking’s Vie de Sainte Catherine.” Neophilologus 103.1 (2019): 5–21.
2. “The Queen’s Fantastic Body: A Comparative Study of Mythologization of Empress Wu Zetian and Eleanor of Aquitaine.” Journal of Medieval Worlds 2. 3–4 (2020): 96–114.
3. “Between History and Prophecy: Ovidian Metamorphoses and the 1381 Revolt in John Gower’s Visio Anglie.” The Chaucer Review 56.1 (2021): 33–53.
4. “‘Wyde Howses Full of Wolle Sakkes’: ‘Estate of Merchants’ and the Parliamentary Commons in Wynnere and Wastoure.” Parergon 38.1 (2021): 21–40.
5. “Natural Law and Parliamentary Election in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Parliament of Fowls.” The Chaucer Review 57.3 (2022): 302–320.
6. “The Buddha’s Shadow and God’s Flesh: Image and Anti-image in Huiyuan and Julian of Norwich.” Journal of Religion and Literature 54.1–2 (2022): 27–47.
7. “Enfeoffment to Use, Legalism, and Humanism in Gower’s Mirour de l’Omme.” JEGP 122.1 (2023): 86–106.
8. “Allegory and Authorship in Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Tale of Melibee’” (《梅利比的故事》中的托寓与乔叟的作者意识). Foreign Literatures (2024) (《国外文学》2024年第3期): 75–86. (in Chinese)
9. “Divine Iconoclasm and the Making of Sacred Space in John Capgrave’s Life of Saint Katherine of Alexandria.” Religions 16.6 (2025): 684. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060684. (Invited article for the special issue Materiality and Gender Constructs in Hagiography: Saints and Sacred Space; Open Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/6/684).
10. “Constance on Trial: Allegorising Legal Personhood in John Gower’s ‘The Tale of Constance’ and Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Man of Law’s Tale’.” Medium Aevum 94.1 (2025): 133–157.
11. “Literary Nominalism and Anti-Allegory in Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Clerk’s Tale’.” The Chaucer Review 61.1 (2026): 103–122.
Book Chapters
1. “Petition, Justice, and Peace in Piers Plowman.” In Literary Forms and Cultural Power in Medieval and Early Modern Literature: A Book for James Simpson. Eds. Daniel Donoghue, Sebastian Sobecki, and Nicholas Watson (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2024), 167–182. (Invited Contribution)
Publisher’s page: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843847113/form-and-power-in-medieval-and-early-modern-literature/
2. “Clemence of Barking.” In The Routledge Handbook of Medieval European Women and Christianity. (Invited contribution, forthcoming)
Encyclopedia Entries
1. “Caedmon” (卡德蒙) , in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
2. “Caxton, William”（威廉·卡克斯顿）, in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
3. “Gower, John”（约翰·高尔）, in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
4. “King Alfred” (阿尔弗雷德大帝), in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
5. “Le Morte d’Arthur”（《亚瑟王之死》）, in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
6. “Lydgate, John”（约翰·利德盖特）, in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
7. “Middle English Literature”（中古英语文学）, in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版）(online) (in Chinese)
8. “Old English Literature”（古英语文学）, in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版）(online) (in Chinese)
9. “Piers Plowman”（《农夫皮尔斯》）, in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
10. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” (《高文爵士与绿骑士》), in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
11. “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville” (《曼德维尔游记》) , in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
12. “Tyndale, William”（威廉·廷代尔）, in Encyclopedia of China, 3rd Edition（《中国大百科全书》第三版） (online) (in Chinese)
Courses Taught
Graduate Seminars
1. Medieval English Literature, 1066–1500
2. Medieval English Literature: Langland Studies
3. Writing and Research Methodologies
4. Pro-Seminar for First-Year Graduate Students
Undergraduate Courses
1. University-Wide and General Education Courses
Introduction to Modern Fantasy Literature (university-wide)
Selected Readings in European Literature: Virgil’s Aeneid and Its Legacy (general education / core curriculum)
Introduction to European Literature
2. Medieval and Philological Training
Medieval English Literature: Selected Readings
The History of the English Language
3. Additional Advanced and Skills-Based Courses
Readings in English Prose IV
Advanced English Listening Comprehension
Advisorship
Academic Advisor, Yuanpei College, Peking University
Selected Conference Presentations and Invited Talks
Conference Presentations and Invited Talks
1. “Necessity and the Suspension of Law: Examining States of Exception in Chaucer’s Melibee and Lydgate’s Siege of Thebes.” 24th Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress, Freiburg, Germany. July 2026 (scheduled).
2. “Coastal Vulnerability and the Politics of the Sea in Gower’s Apollonius of Tyre.” VI International Congress of the John Gower Society, University of Alicante, Spain. June–July 2026 (scheduled).
3. “Allegorizing Institutions in Fourteenth-Century Middle English Literature.” MLA Convention, Toronto, Canada. January 2026.
4. “Shifting Narrative and Interpretative Viewpoints in The Canterbury Tales.” Tsinghua University, Beijing. December 2024 (invited talk, in Chinese).
5. “Translating Griselda: Literary Nominalism, (Anti-)Allegory, and (Anti-)Romance in Chaucer’s ‘Clerk’s Tale’.” 23rd Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress, Pasadena, CA. July 2024.
6. “The Canterbury Tales and Medieval Allegorical Poetics.” Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Peking University, Beijing. April 2024 (invited talk, in Chinese).
7. “Allegorizing Innocence: Constance on Trial in Chaucer and Gower.” V International Congress of the John Gower Society, University of St Andrews, Scotland. July 2023.
8. “The Ellesmere Chaucer and New Archival Research.” Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Peking University. June 2023 (invited talk, in Chinese).
9. “Image and Anti-image in Huiyuan and Julian of Norwich.” National University of Singapore. November 2022 (invited online talk, in Chinese).
10. “A Comparative Study of the Queen’s Two Bodies.” 22nd Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress, Durham University (online). July 2022.
11. “Common Petitions, Mercantilism, and Justice in Piers Plowman.” Illuminated and Unsettled: A Conference in Honor of James Simpson, Harvard University, MA. September 2022.
12. “The Buddha’s Shadow and God’s Flesh.” Bard College, NY. April 2021 (invited online talk).
13. “Chaucer’s Reconstruction of Aquinas’s Natural Law in The Parliament of Fowls.” First Annual Forum of Yinghua Scholars, Shanghai International Studies University. April 2021 (invited talk, in Chinese).
14. “Ovid and the 1381 Revolt in England.” Fudan University, Shanghai. November 2020 (invited talk, in Chinese).
15. “Ovid the Prophet: Poetics of Metamorphoses and the 1381 Revolt in Gower’s Visio Anglie.” 54th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI. May 2019.
16. “Iconoclasm and Liturgy in The Croxton Play of the Sacrament.” Harvard Medieval English Colloquium, Harvard University. February 2019.
Conferences and Academic Events Organized
1. Organizer and Chair, Peking University “Universal Hall Top Scholar Global Fellowship” Lecture Series by Alastair Minnis (Yale University). Peking University, 2025.
2. Organizer and Chair, Lecture Series by James Simpson (Harvard University). Peking University, 2024.
3. Keynote Symposium Moderator, “2023 International Academic Forum: 40th Anniversary Commemoration of the Department of English, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University.” Peking University, 2022.
4. Chair and Discussant, “Global Asia and the Global Mediterranean.” University of Chicago (Virtual Event), 2022.
5. Organizer (with James Simpson, Nicholas Watson, Daniel Donoghue, and Anna Wilson), “Reading Then, Reading Now: Bloomfield Conference.” Harvard University, 2019.
6. Organizer (with Monika Otter), “Copia Verborum” and “Catalogus Verborum.” Special Sessions at the 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo), 2015.
