Xinzhi Lin

Field: Chinese History

Advisors: Robert Hymes and Zhaohua Yang

Email: xl3020@columbia.edu

Xinzhi is a Ph.D. student in pre-modern Chinese history, he studies the political, intellectual, and religious history of the Song dynasty. His primary research focuses on the development of the Song emperorship system, the evolving roles of emperors and those high officials, the changing nature of the imperial-subjects relationships, also how Song emperors were able to position themselves above religious hierarchies through political maneuvers on the one hand and ideological reframing of religion on the other hand. 

Xinzhi was born in the ancient capital city of the Song- Kaifeng, in Henan Province of China, and grew up in Flushing, New York. Xinzhi received his BA in History and International Relations from Syracuse University in 2020 and his MA in EALAC from Columbia in 2022.

Constantine Lignos

Field: Sino-Tibetan History & Religion
Advisor: Gray Tuttle and Jacob Dalton (UC Berkeley)
Email: cjl2212@columbia.edu

Constantine’s research focuses on the history of public ritual performance in Tibet and its Mongol and Manchu adoption in the borderlands.  He is interested in the transference of religious ritual performance (particularly ‘cham/‘chams, the masked monastic dance) to the social and political spheres during the ascendence of the Fifth Dalai Lama and the establishment of the Ganden Phodrang.  More broadly, his project explores the relationship between public ritual and sacral rulership to reconsider the nature of the “theatre state.” He is also compiling a glossary of Tibetan terms relevant to the LGBTQ community. Previously, he received his MA in Tibetan Studies from Columbia and his MA in Performance Studies from NYU Tisch.

Yilun Li

Field: Chinese Cinema, Media, and Arts

Advisor: Ying Qian

Email: yl4587@columbia.edu

Yilun Li is a Ph.D. student in Chinese Cinema, Media, and Arts at the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALAC), where he is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Comparative Media through the Center for Comparative Media (CCM). He hails from China (B.A., Tsinghua University) and holds an M.A. in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University. 

Standing at the intersection of cinema and media studies, art history, and environmental humanities, his research investigates the politics and aesthetics of Chinese experimental media practices, with a particular focus on their entanglement with urban development, infrastructural construction, resource extraction, environmental degradation, and biopolitical governance. Other interests include nonfiction cinema, modern and contemporary visual arts, media archaeology, and feminist and queer science and technology studies (STS). His academic writing has been published in journals such as Dianying Yishu (Film Art).