Sara Barrera is a PhD student in early Chinese intellectual history. Her most recent research interests focus on conceptions of sagehood and rulership during the Warring States and Han dynasty. Her MA thesis at UC Berkeley studies the role of emotions in the Zhuangzi 莊子. She tentatively envisions her PhD dissertation as a study of the influence of cosmology on political thought in the late Western a​nd Eastern Han. Within this project, she is particularly interested in the role of the concepts of tianming 天命 a​nd ming ​命 on the articulation of views about what makes a good government and a virtuous emperor. In addition to training in early Chinese intellectual history, Sara has a background in Western intellectual history, with a serious interest in ancient Greek philosophy, and plans to pursue the Certificate Program in Classics at Princeton through her PhD studies. In the long term, she aims to build an approach to comparative studies from a solid foundation in early Chinese history, thought and literature.