Qiao Yang is a historian of premodern China and the Islamciate world, specializing in the Mongol Empire (1206-1368). Her research intersects social history with the history of science, exploring the social and cultural contexts that shaped the development and exchange of knowledge. Qiao’s first book project, Heavenly Knowledge, World Empire, examines the interplay between the Mongols’ imperial power and astral sciences (astronomy, astrology, calendar-making). It demonstrates that the Mongols governed with a sophisticated understanding of the heavens and shaped the development of astral sciences by elevating their social prestige and mobilizing astronomers across Eurasia. Her second book project, Empire of Languages, investigates how multilingualism connected Mongol Eurasia during the 13th and 14th centuries. It explores the Mongols’ formal language policies in administration, diplomacy, and education, while also examining how everyday individuals engaged in language learning and translingual communication. Before joining Van Leer, Qiao was a research scholar at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.