Dr Kunyan Zheng

Associate Research Fellow

Dr Kunyan Zheng joined the Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities in September 2019 and completed her viva in October 2024. She is an environmental historian specialising in the marine environmental history of the early modern North Atlantic world. Her doctoral dissertation investigates the interactions between the English elite and marine fish in the North Atlantic, exploring the role of marine fish in the expansion of the English empire between 1550 and 1640. This thesis utilises digital humanities tools to analyse historical records and quantitative data, including datasets from the NorFish project. During her time in Dublin, Kunyan also worked on the literature review for the 4-Oceans project on a short-term basis.

In February 2024, Kunyan was awarded the Postgraduate Certificate in Statistics (Online) upon completing modules offered by the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin during the 2022–2023 academic year.

In 2019, Kunyan received an MA in History from Renmin University of China, Beijing. Her MA thesis examined shifting American perceptions of the Mojave Desert between 1850 and 1950, with particular attention to the perceived links between tuberculosis and the desert environment. She earned a BA in History and a BS in Geography from Central China Normal University in 2016.

Kunyan is currently working on the environmental history of the early modern North Atlantic world and early modern England. She is also a member of the research project Urbanization, Species Exchange, and Environmental Change in the Pacific World, 18th to 20th Centuries, funded by the National Social Science Fund of China.

Research interests: environmental history, environmental humanities, marine life, maritime history, early modern England, digital humanities, modern Pacific world.

Peer-reviewed publications:

Zheng, Kunyan. Review of Inshore Fishes of Britain and Ireland by Lin Baldock and Frances Dipper. H-Environment, H-Net Reviews, July 2024. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=59970. Zheng, Kunyan. Review of Hydrohumanities: Water Discourse and Environmental Futures, edited by Kim De Wolff, Rina C. Faletti, and Ignacio López-Calvo. H-Environment, H-Net Reviews, December 2022. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=58503.

Email: zhengk@tcd.ie