About - WANG Kuan-Wen

Wang Kuan-Wen 王魶文 is an Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She received her MSc from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and her PhD from the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on cultural, social, and economic interactions through material circulation and ancient technology, with an emphasis on glass artifacts in prehistoric Taiwan and the South China Sea region. Her work has revealed extensive inter-regional exchange networks and challenged previous assumptions about local glass production. She also explores the relationship between glass and copper production in South and Southeast Asia, providing new insights into ancient trade and technological exchange.

Her current research examines material exchange networks in and between Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, the cross-regional transmission of craft knowledge, and the cultural connections between prehistoric glass beads and heirloom beads in indigenous societies. She aims to further unravel the complexities of past exchange systems and technological innovations that shaped regional interactions.