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Jinah Kim is the George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art at Harvard University's Department of History of Art & Architecture. She holds a concurrent appointment in South Asian Studies and serves as the Johnson-Kulukundis Family Faculty Director in the Arts at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2022-2025). Previously, she led the Arts program at the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute and served as ACSAA's Vice President (2018-2022) and current President (2022-2026). Her academic journey includes teaching at Vanderbilt University (2006-2011) and Rutgers University (2011-2012) before joining Harvard in 2012. Educated at Seoul National University (B.A., 1998) and UC Berkeley (M.A., 2001; Ph.D., 2006), Kim has held prestigious fellowships including the Mellon Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study (2009-2010) and a Getty-NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship (2012-2013). Her research bridges art history, material culture, and gender studies, with a focus on South and Southeast Asian Buddhist art, sacred objects, and textual-visual intersections. Her publications include Receptacle of the Sacred (2013) and Garland of Visions (2021), alongside a forthcoming monograph on Devi manuscripts and gender. She directs the MAPPING COLOR IN HISTORY digital humanities project, creating open-access pigment databases. Recent exhibitions curated include Water Stories (2023), addressing climate change through art, and the NEH-funded Dharma and Puṇya (2019). Kim’s research emphasizes gendered artistic production, postcolonial discourse, and cross-cultural exchanges. She co-edited the exhibition catalog Dharma and Puṇya: Buddhist Ritual Art of Nepal (2019) and actively collaborates across disciplines, integrating conservation science and digital humanities into art historical inquiry.

• Art and Politics
• Sacred Objects Materiality
• Esoteric Buddhist Iconography
• +5 more

Dr. Alison Carter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon, specializing in Southeast Asian Archaeology with a focus on Cambodia's Angkorian civilization. She serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies and leads the Southeast Asian Archaeology Lab in Condon Hall. PhD in Anthropology from University of Wisconsin-Madison (2013) Her research explores political economy , household archaeology , and climate change impacts on ancient societies. She co-directs the ProjecT Excavating Ancient Households (Pteah Cambodia) , analyzing residential spaces from Pre-Angkorian to Post-Angkorian periods. Recent publications emphasize glass and stone bead analysis (2025), Angkorian urbanism (2024), and protohistoric trade networks (2023). Key methodologies include LA-ICP-MS for material sourcing and LIDAR surveys for landscape analysis. Scientific recognition includes: NSF grant for Battambang Province research Featured in IMAX film Angkor: The Lost Empire of Cambodia As advisor to PhD candidate Tiyas Bhattacharyya, she advances collaborative research with Cambodian institutions like the APSARA Authority. Her work bridges traditional archaeology with modern climate change policy lessons through the Greater Angkor Project .

• Southeast Asian Archaeology
• Archaeobotany
• Compositional Analysis of Artifacts
• +5 more

Mitch Hendrickson is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois Chicago, affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He directs major projects such as the Industries of Angkor Project, exploring iron technology and political change in the Khmer Empire, and co-directs the Two Buddhist Towers and Iron and Angkor Projects examining religious transitions and metallurgy. Education: PhD in Archaeology (University of Sydney, 2007), MA (University of Calgary, 2001), BA (University of Calgary, 1995). Research focuses on Angkorian Khmer Empire dynamics, including transportation networks, iron production, Buddhist religion, and urban development. His work integrates multi-scalar datasets to address state formation, technological exchange, and material culture. Key projects investigate iron smelting landscapes, temple architecture, and religious transitions at sites like Preah Khan of Kompong Svay and the Midewin Tallgrass Prairie. Collaborations include international teams at CNRS and the Field Museum. His publications analyze Angkorian road systems, pyrotechnologies, and the role of iron in empire expansion, with recent focus on Theravada Buddhist transitions and archaeological methodological innovations. Labs/Teams: Industries of Angkor Project, Two Buddhist Towers Project, Iron and Angkor Project, Tallgrass Prairie Archaeological Landscape Project.

• Landscape Archaeology
• Angkorian Khmer Empire
• Iron Technology
• +7 more