Alice Yao
Alice Yao, Ph.D. (University of Michigan, 2008)
Assistant Professor, UTM Campus
(905) 569-4380
Office: 227, North Building, UTM
Field: Archaeology, complex societies, China, mainland Southeast Asia, imperialism, and cross-cultural interactions
Research:
Dr. Yao's research focuses on the impact of Han Empire's conquest of frontier regions and seeks to explain the variable ways different communities and social classes responded to momentous changes in local history. Currently, she is conducting an archaeological survey project in southwestern China, which aims to recover the settlement sites of a local Bronze Age polity known as the "Dian" before its incorporation by the Han Empire. This ongoing project investigates the genesis of the Dian polity in relation to control over bronze production and the regional trade network developing between China and Southeast Asia.
Publications:
2005 Scratching beneath iconographic and textual clues: A reconsideration of the social hierarchy in the Dian culture of Southwestern China. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24, 378-405.
2008 Precipitating change or sustaining traditions: Social patterns of a Bronze Age community from the Upper Pearl River drainage in Yunnan before Han imperial period. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 28, 23-33.
In press. Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Southwestern China (accepted Journal of Archaeological Research).
