Yanlong Guo's primary research focuses on the art and material culture of early imperial China (third century BCE to the third century CE).

Guo teaches a wide range of courses on early Chinese art and material culture, as well as ink art, popular culture, and visual culture of science in an East Asian context. All courses take advantage of local collections, both on campus and farther afield. Special attention is paid to visual literacy, historiography and interdisciplinary research.

Guo is currently revising his doctoral dissertation, Affordable Luxury: The Entanglements of Metal Mirrors in the Han Empire (202 BCE–220 CE), into a book manuscript. His research explores the intersections of art history, archaeology and economic history. He has excavated at various sites in Guangdong, Hubei and Shanxi provinces in China.

During the 2016–2017 academic year, he was the postdoctoral fellow of Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices at Berlin’s Forum Transregionale Studien. He also serves on the editorial board of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art.