Yan Sun is a Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Gettysburg College. Her research focuses on early Chinese art history and material culture, with a particular interest in the interdisciplinary study of identity construction and cultural belonging among groups and individuals during the Bronze Age.

Professor Sun has published extensively in both Chinese and English. Her major works include Ancient China and Its Eurasian Neighbors (co-author, Cambridge University Press, 2018) and Memory and Agency in Ancient China (co-editor, Cambridge University Press, 2019). Her monograph, Many Worlds Under One Heaven: Material Culture, Identity, and Power in the Northern Frontiers of the Western Zhou, 1045-771 BCE (Columbia University Press, 2021), provides a comprehensive examination of the Western Zhou's northern frontiers by integrating archaeological data, bronze inscriptions, and transmitted texts.

From April to June 2026, Professor Sun will be conducting visiting research at the International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization (ICSCC), Fudan University.