Mengmeng Sun

Dr. Mengmeng Sun’s research focuses on the history of climate science and climate culture. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Department AAK at MPIWG and an assistant researcher at the School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, where she leads a Max Planck partner group titled “Daily Practices of Cosmological Knowledge in Late Imperial China (1368–1911).” Within this research framework, she aims to bring together scholars from various fields—such as history of astrology, materia medica (bencao), mineralogy, and astronomy—into a forum discussing cosmological ideas in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Her approach emphasizes non-elite textual activities to enhance our understanding of the populist tendencies in Chinese cosmology during this period.

Particularly, she is interested in how Yueling cosmology evolved within local cultures and how it intersects with modern concepts of “climate.” Additionally, her research interests extend to the ideas surrounding “climate and civilization” in twentieth-century China, and she is currently revising her doctoral thesis so that it can be published as “The Science and Culture of Climate Change Predictions in the 20th Century.” These research interests have been profoundly enriched by her postdoctoral project on “Different Cultures, Different Climates” at Department AAK from 2018 to 2020.