Michelle McCoy

Michelle McCoy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on Chinese and Inner Asian art, emphasizing transcultural exchange, religion, and science. She holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and has held fellowships at institutions including the Max Planck Institute and the Dunhuang Academy.

Her teaching includes courses on Silk Road material culture, eco-critique in art history, and public exhibitions. Recent projects explore astrology’s role in pre-modern art and the Dunhuang Buddhist grottoes. She collaborates with global research groups like the Max Planck Institute’s ‘Visualization and Material Culture of the Heavens’ and the ERC-funded ‘Global Horizons in Premodern Art.’

• Education:
• PhD, University of California, Berkeley
• MA, University of California, Davis
• BFA, Pratt Institute

Her awards include the Ittleson Fellowship and Fulbright–IIE Fellowship. She advises two graduate students and has organized exhibitions at the University Art Gallery. Current research integrates art history with environmental and feminist critiques.