Home For Graduate Students The Cutting Edge: Interdisciplinary Possibilities Anthony Barbieri-Low
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Assistant Professor, History (Ancient China, Chinese Archaeology, and Epigraphy)

Anthony Barbieri-Low’s research is currently focused on craftsmen in Ancient China, cultural contact and transmission between China and the West, historical interpretations of the Qin Dynasty, and law and society in Early China.

Since coming to UC Santa Barbara, I have enjoyed discussing research with faculty in Anthropology, Classics, Art History, and East Asian Studies whose work all intersects with mine in some way. The research focus groups of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center are a good place to interact with faculty from other disciplines.

My own research has always been highly interdisciplinary. My first book was an exhibition catalog, researched and co-authored by historians, art historians, and archaeologists, and my most recent book, Artisans in Early Imperial China, was a multi-disciplinary approach to writing a social history of artisans using the methodologies of art history, history, and archaeology. It has subsequently received awards or recognition from both the American Historical Association and the College Art Association. I have encouraged all the graduate students I have trained to take courses as broadly as possible, in other related disciplines like Anthropology and Art History.

One of my current PhD students is developing a dissertation topic involving government food bequests and rations during early imperial China. I have guided her to look not only at historical records, but also inscriptions and texts excavated from tombs. I also encouraged her to have a second field in physical anthropology, so that she could discuss the impact of nutrition on bones and human health.

That it allows them to broaden their view of their topic, and to make connections with other faculty and graduate students whose work intersects with theirs in unexpected ways.