Peter Bol


Peter Kees Bol is an American historian and sinologist. He is the Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University. Since 2013, he has been a Vice Provost of Harvard with oversight of HarvardX and the Harvard Initiative in Learning and Teaching. He is the founding director of the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis, and also directs the China Historical Geographic Information System and the China Biographical Database project.

Biography

Peter Bol earned his Ph.D. in Chinese history from Princeton University in 1980. His main research focus is China's cultural elites during the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. He and William C. Kirby together teach ChinaX, a Harvard massive open online course with a worldwide enrollment of more than 45,000 students.
Bol has been a Vice Provost of Harvard University since 2013. He oversees HarvardX and the Harvard Initiative in Learning and Teaching. He is the founding director of the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis, and also directs the China Historical Geographic Information System, and the China Biographical Database project.

Selected publications