Zachary Hershey joined the faculty of Kenyon's Department of History in 2022. His research focuses on the environmental, administrative and economic history of Northeast Asian borderlands and the historical peoples who have occupied the region. Hershey has argued against the existence of a strict borderline between southern, sedentary agrarian polities and northern, nomadic pastoral polities by documenting the development of economies based on mixed land use. Hershey works to promote the incorporation of Serbi-Mongolic language sources in the writing of East Asian history.
Hershey’s courses draw on frontier narratives to explore interregional interactions to help contextualize narrow histories within the history of the region or world. His teaching often incorporates sources from multiple disciplines including art history, archaeology, linguistics and environmental sciences.
Prior to Kenyon, Hershey has taught East Asian history at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Areas of Expertise
Frontier history, East Asian environmental history, Serbi-Mongolic languages and linguistics
Education
2021 — Doctor of Philosophy from University of Pennsylvania
2016 — Master of Arts from University of Pennsylvania
2014 — Bachelor of Arts from Univ. of California Berkeley