He was awarded a doctorate in anthropology from Harvard in 1960 and began teaching the next year at Yale, where he remained for 16 years, moving up to department chairman and chairman of the Council on East Asian Studies.
一九六○年，張光直取得哈佛大學人類學博士學位，隔年應聘至耶魯大學任教，就此在耶魯一待十六年，並歷任人類學系主任、東亞評議會主席。