As a historian of early modern China, she has endeavored to engage with the field of modern China studies; as a China scholar, she has always positioned herself within the study of women and gender and applied feminist approaches in her work; as a historian, she has ventured across disciplinary boundaries, into fields that include literature, visual and material culture, science and technology, as well as studies of fashion, the body and sexuality.

Ko's research has been supported by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, among others.

[4] Ko received secondary education at the Queen Elizabeth School, Hong Kong.

[6][7] Ko's academic interests and conceptual organization of her scholarship bore significant influence from the works of two historians: Joan Scott and Caroline Walker Bynum.

[8] Caroline Walker Bynum's examination of the relationships between women's conceptualization of their bodies and its theological and spiritual position has inspired Ko to problematize the experiences of women in late imperial China with their bodies, especially in terms of footbinding.