Yunji Li

Before coming to Stanford, I majored in Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Honors) at New York University. I was incredibly fortunate to write my senior honors thesis under the guidance of Professor Kathryn A. Smith: Imaging and Imagining Saint Francis in Medieval Manuscripts, ca. 1230–1350. Supported by seven NYU research grants, the 172-page thesis was awarded Highest Honors, recognized as the best thesis in the department, and nominated for the 2026 NYU Borgman Best Thesis Award in the Humanities.

In the thesis, I proposed a new working definition of the “Franciscan manuscript” and developed a series of case studies examining how such manuscripts engaged with questions of medieval Orientalism, optical theory, and antifraternalism. The first three chapters have since been published in Dies Legibiles: An Undergraduate Journal of Medieval Studies and the Journal of Undergraduate Research in the Humanities.

During my three undergraduate years, I presented my research at thirteen conferences and pursued coursework at Georgetown University, George Washington University, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, and the Institute of Fine Arts. These experiences allowed me to learn from scholars across disciplines and institutions while receiving training in medieval art history, liturgical music, paleography, pigment studies, and related fields.

I have also held internships with Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the Bible, the Art Museum of Songyugui, Fragmentarium: Laboratory for Medieval Manuscripts Fragments, Sargent’s Daughters, and Rapaport Auction, among others. In addition, I served for three years as an editor for Dies Legibiles.