Curriculum Vitae

Weixuan Li
Leiden University
Arsenaalstraat 1, room A1.16
2311 CT Leiden
w.li[at]hum.leidenuniv.nl
w.li [at] uva.nl

Current position

Post-doctoral researcher | Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Universiteit Leiden (2022-2024)

Education

2018-2022

Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands

PhD - Cum laude

Dissertation project – Painters’ playbooks: Deep mapping socio-spatial strategies in the art market of seventeenth-century Amsterdam
Funded within the NWO research project: Virtual Interiors as Interfaces for Big Historical Data Research: Spatially enhanced publications of the creative industries of the Dutch Golden Age.
Promoters: Prof. Charles van den Heuvel, prof. Julia Noordegraaf
Co-promoters: dr. Marten Jan Bok and dr. Claartje Rasterhoff

2016-2018

University of Amsterdam 

Research Master in Arts of the Netherlands (Cum lAUDE)

Thesis project — Deciphering the art and market in the Dutch Golden Age: Insights from digital methodologies
Supervisors: dr. Marten Jan Bok, and dr. Claartje Rasterhoff.
Awards: Best Thesis within the Faculty of Humanities 2019, De Zeventiende Eeuw Werkgroep Scriptieprijs

2011-2014

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Dual MA-Msc, City planning and Transportation

Research focus: Urban Design, Advanced GIS and SQL, Demand Modeling, Urban Economics
Full scholarship from SMART and Transit Lab

2006-2011

Peking University, Beijing

Dual Be-ba in Urban and Regional Planning & Economics

Experienced in urban and architectural design in 3D, graphic design from multiple design studios

 Professional Experience

  • 2014 – 2016 Senior Consultant, Steer Group, Boston MA, USA 
  • 2013 – 2014 Research Associate, MTR Corporation Ltd., Hong Kong, China |Department of Civil Engineering, MIT, Cambridge MA, USA 
  • Apr. – Jun. 2011 Short term consultant, The World Bank 

Additional Functions

  •  2019 – present Peer Reviewer, Oud Holland
  •  2019 – present JHNA Digital Advisory Group Board Member, Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art
  •  2019 – present Monthly Research Seminar Organizer, Department of Art History, University of Amsterdam
  •  2018 – present Project Associate, NWO infrastructure project: Golden Agents: Creative industries and the making of the Dutch Golden Age, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands and the Meertens Institute) 
  • Sep. 2017 – Aug. 2018 Pre-Ph.D. Fellow, Creative Amsterdam: An E-Humanities Perspective, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 
  • Jun. – Aug. 2017 Research and Curatorial Intern, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Teaching

  • [Forthcoming] BA course: Digital Heritage
  • [Forthcoming]  MA course: A digital lens: new tools for interpreting early modern art and culture
  • Spring 2023 (With dr. Elmer Kolfin) BA course: Hollandse kunst in de zeventiende eeuw 
  • Spring 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018 (With prof. Charles van den Heuvel) MA course: Digital methods and source criticisms in history 
  • Fall 2017, 2018 (With dr. Clé Lesger, prof. Lex Bosman, and prof. Gabri van Tussenbroek) MA course: De digitale stad, University of Amsterdam, Nominated for Onderwijsprijs (Education Award) for MA classes at UvA 
  • (Guest lecture) Spring 2022 MA course: Schilders, liefhebbers en de markt voor schilderijen: 1590-1700, invited by dr. Piet Bakker 
  • (Guest lecture) Fall 2021 rMA course: Digital Perspectives, Utrecht University, invited by prof. Thijs Weststeijn 
  • (Guest lecture) Fall 2018 MA course: Digital Humanities: The Digital Scholar of Pre-modern Sources, Utrecht University, invited by prof. Mariken Teeuwen 
  • (Guest lecture) Fall 2018 Digital Humanities and Social Analytics Minor course: Digital Humanities Today, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, invited by dr. Erika Kuijpers 
  • (Guest lecture) Fall 2017 BA course: Cultural and artistic networks in the Dutch Republic, University of Amsterdam, invited by dr. Marten Jan Bok Publications 

Publications

Peer-reviewed scholarly publications

  • 2022 Li. W., Piccoli, C., ‘Boedelinventarissen als bron voor reconstructie van interieurs,’ in Alle Amsterdamse Akten, Jaarboek Amstelodamum, 2022, 144-151. 
  • 2022 Van den Heuvel, C., Van Tussenbroek. G., Noordegraaf, J., and Piccoli, C., Li, W.,‘Virtual Interiors en de gelaagde stad. Een inkijk in een digitaal lab voor een ruimtelijke geschiedenis van Amsterdam’, Stadsgeschiedenis, 2022, 136-149. 
  • 2021 Li, W., ‘A Network of Iconography: Tracing the Evolution of Iconography in History Paintings in the Dutch Golden Age’, Early Modern Low Countries, 2021 5(2), pp. 216–249. DOI: 10.51750/emlc11334 
  • 2021 Li, W., ‘Spotting specialists: A digital approach to contemporary concepts of genre and specialisation’, in Osnabrugge, M. (ed.) Questioning Pictorial Genres in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Art: Definitions, Artistic Practices, Market & Society,  Brepols Publishers, 2021 pp. 43-71. (Book available here
  • 2020 Li, W., ‘The Hands Behind De Lairesse’s Masterpieces: Gerard de Lairesse’s workshop practice,’ Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 12:1 (Winter 2020). DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2020.12.1.4 
  • 2019 Li, W., ‘Innovative Exuberance: Visualizing the fluctuations in painting production in the 17th-century Northern Netherlands’, Arts, Special Issue: Art Markets and Digital Histories, 2019 8(2), 72. DOI: 10.3390/arts8020072 
  • 2011 Li, W., Feng, C. C., and Zhao, F. F., ‘Influence of rail transit on nearby commodity housing prices: a case study of Beijing Subway Line Five’, Acta Geographica Sinica 66.8 (2011): 1055-1062 (in Chinese). 

Conference proceedings, book reviews, and online publications

 Presentations and invited talks (selected)

  • 21 Mar. 2023 ‘The Montias Database: Exploring 17th-Century Dutch Domestic Interiors Digitally’, Frick Art Reference Library Talk (online, recording available here)
  •  (2-4 Jun. 2022) [With Chiara Piccoli] ‘Place and value inside domestic interiors: the case of Pieter de Graeff and the affluent burghers in Amsterdam’, Historians of Netherlandish Art conference 2022, Amsterdam/The Hague 
  •  (11-12 May 2022) ‘(Deep) mapping uncertainties of artists’ locations in 17th-century Amsterdam’, Workshop Mapping Uncertainties, Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, Rome
  • (12 Apr. 2022) [With Lucas van der Deijl] ‘Bidloo’s and Lairesse’s Anatomia Humani Corporis (1685)’, Object Colloquium, Amsterdam Centre for Studies in Early Modernity
  • (3 Feb. 2022) ‘Mapping 17th-century art market in Amsterdam: Space and Strategy’, CREATE salon: Creative Industries: Then and Now (online, recording available here) 
  • (1-3 Jul. 2021) ‘Mapping the social-economic network of Artists in early modern Amsterdam’, Historical Network Analysis conference (online) 
  • (16 Jun. 2021) ‘A Peek behind Closed Doors: Displaying and Dealing Art in Rembrandt’s Amsterdam’, Rembrandt in Amsterdam exhibition symposium, National Gallery of Canada (public lecture online, recording available below) 
  • (3 Jun. 2021) [With Eric Jan Sluijter] “Holland’s last epidemic of plague (1663/4) and the decline of the art of painting,” Historians of Netherlandish Art Pandemic session (online) 
  • (20 Apr. 2021) [With Sandra van Ginhoven etc.] Panel: Early Modern Digital Art History: Computation as Methodology, RSA Virtual 2021 (online) 
  • (10 Feb. 2021) ‘Spatial Reading of Inventories: Producing and displaying arts in seventeenth-century Amsterdam’, Groningen Research Webinars: Art History and Visual Material Culture (online, recording available here
  • (23 Sep. 2020) ‘3D-Visualizations as tools to understand the painting business in Golden Age Amsterdam’, CREATE Salon: Applying 3D-visualisations to historical research (online, recording available below)
  • (29 Jul. -2 Aug. 2019) Workshop leader in Network + Map workshop in Network Analysis + Digital Art History: A Getty Advanced Workshop, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 
  • (10 Jul. 2019) [With Chiara Piccoli and Charles van den Heuvel]‘Embracing Complex Interfaces Linking Deep Maps and Virtual Interiors to Big Data of the Dutch Golden Age.,’ DH 2019: Digital Humanities Conference, Utrecht 
  • (11 Jul. 2019) [With Alex Butterworth, etc.] Panel discussion: Complex Space-Time, DH 2019: Digital Humanities Conference, Utrecht 
  • (6-7 Jun. 2019) ‘Comprehending the concepts of genre and specialization in the eyes of seventeenth-century connoisseurs: a digital approach’, The Contribution of Artistic Genres to the Construction of the Dutch Golden Age conference, Haarlem 
  • (29-30 Jan. 2019) ‘Artists and the Creative Urban Space’, Mobility Creates Master: Database for research symposium, National Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden 
  • (5-6 Nov. 2018) ‘The Amsterdam Hands in De Lairesse’s Paintings: A Quantitative Approach’, International Conference Many Antwerp Hands, Rubenianum Antwerp, Belgium 
  • (20-21 Sep. 2018) ‘Beyond Location: Deep mapping artist’s workshops in the early modern Amsterdam’, Spatial Humanities 2018 conference, Lancaster, UK 
  •  (2-4 Jun. 2018) [With Claartje Rasterhoff, Ivan Kisjes, and Kasper Beelen] ‘Measuring Innovation in the Art and Book Market during the Dutch Golden Age’, Digital Humanities Benelux 2018 conference, Amsterdam 

Valorization and media coverage

Grants and Awards

  • 2022 University of Amsterdam Three-Minute Thesis Pitch competition:  second place
  • 2021 Claudine de With Beurs -Vereining Rembrandt 
  • 2020 De Zeventiende Eeuw Werkgroep Scriptieprijs 2018-2020
  • 2019 Best thesis in the Faculty of Humanities 2018-2019, University of Amsterdam
  • 2018 (Nominated) Onderwijsprijs (Education Award) for MA classes at UvA 
  • 2017-8 Pre-PhD fellowship (0.5 ft, one year), University of Amsterdam 

Honors/Scholarships

  • 2013 Transit Lab Scholarship, MIT 
  • 2012 Contribution to the Intellectual Life, MIT 
  • 2012-3 Department of Urban Planning, SMART scholarship, MIT 
  • 2010 Peking University President Scholarship 
  • 2009 Robin Li Scholarship Professional

Professional Affiliations

  • Member of Historians of Netherlandish Art (HNA) 
  • Member of Renaissance Society of America (RSA) 
  • Member of International Art Market Studies Association (TIAMSA) 
  • Member of Historical Network Research Community (HNR) 
  • Member of the N.W. Posthumus Institute 
  • Member of Time Machine Organization, Amsterdam Chamber: Amsterdam Time Machine 
  • Member of Creative Amsterdam: An E-Humanities Perspective (CREATE), University of Amsterdam 
  • Member of DH Lab, KNAW Humanities Cluster

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