He specializes in Chinese literature, poetry, literary thought, philology, and historiography.
He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 for a monograph project on early Chinese poetry.
In 2017, he became the founding director of the International Center for the Study of Ancient Text Cultures at the Renmin University of China in Beijing.
[1][2] Kern's research focuses on Chinese literature, poetry, literary thought, historiography, and philology, as well as the history of Sinology as a field.
[1][4] He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 for a monograph project on the early history of Chinese poetry.