Born and raised in Shanghai, China, Jiayun attended Grinnell College, where she obtained her B.A.s in Art History and Classics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. While being a student at Grinnell, she further pursued classics by studying abroad at the birthplaces of the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. She participated in two summer seminars, “Greek Sculpture Up Close” and “Myth on Site,” at the American School of Classical Studies, Athens, and an off-campus program at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome.
Her academic experiences and adventures culminated in her mentored advanced research paper which proposes the date, identity, and function of a third-century CE child portrait in the art collection of Grinnell College. This paper won the Phi Beta Kappa Scholar’s Award in 2019. In the same year, Jiayun presented it at the CAMWS Meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Jiayun’s main research interest lies in the material culture of ancient Greece and Rome. Her thesis research fostered in her a deep interest in portraiture, which she intends to keep exploring at Columbia. She also holds a great fascination for numismatics, which was kindled by her internship task of cataloguing the coin collection at the American Academy in Rome. Moreover, Jiayun is interested in adopting a cross-cultural perspective on the ancient world by investigating the material links between the Roman empire and China during the early period of the Silk Road.