Prof. Qing PEI is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in LSGI and the Department of Chinese History and Culture at PolyU. His research group specializes in the interdisciplinary intersection of historical geography, climate-society dynamics, digital humanities, and Historical GIS.
By integrating qualitative and quantitative interdisciplinary methodologies based on historical archives, the team investigates the spatiotemporal patterns of historical climate change and societal responses. The research spans centennial to millennial timescales, with spatial coverage ranging from the global to the Eurasian, European, and Chinese contexts.
1. Reconstruction of Historical Climate Change and Its Societal Impacts
Utilizing global documentary sources and historical records of weather and climate phenomena, the team enhances high-resolution climate reconstructions. By cross-validating these models with socioeconomic data, they reinterpret societal evolution through the lens of climate variability. Notable work includes a "trilogy framework" examining the nexus of climate change, warfare, epidemics, and famine, alongside significant revisions to Malthusian population theory regarding resource-population equilibrium. (Figure 1)
2. Climate Adaptation and Resilience in Historical Societies
The group explores how past civilizations actively adapted to environmental shifts from mental and behavioral perspectives. From mental perspective, the research reveals how climate-induced pressures fostered the emergence of major European thinkers over two millennia. On behavioral side, they studies analyze top-down national policies versus bottom-up strategies, such as nomadic migration patterns, to understand adaptation across diverse societal structures. (Figure 2 & Figure 3)
3. Theoretical Construction and Methodological Innovation in Environmental Humanism
The team proposes a causal-inference paradigm grounded in historical-geographical scales. By integrating historical records with quantitative data, this framework transcends traditional environmental determinism to establish a distinctive environmental humanism, providing a new epistemological foundation for human-nature interactions. (Figure 4)
Honours and Awards
· RGC Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme (Hong Kong)
· Second Prize for Natural Science, Ministry of Education’s Awards for Scientific Research (China)
· Carson Fellowship, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
· Li Ka Shing Prize
· Swire Scholar Award
Contact Information
Professor Qing PEI’s research group is actively seeking PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and research assistants with strong academic backgrounds in related fields.
· Department Homepage: View Academic Profile
· Email: qing.pei@polyu.edu.hk
