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Prita Meier is an Associate Professor of Art History at New York University's College of Arts & Science , affiliated with the Department of Art History & the Institute of Fine Arts. Her work bridges African art history, Indian Ocean world studies, and global modernity frameworks. Education: Ph.D. (2007) in History of Art, Harvard University M.A. (2000) in History of Art, University of Iowa B.A. (1996) in Art History, University of Florida Research Interests focus on the visual and architectural cultures of Africa, particularly Swahili Coast port cities, exploring globalization's cultural dimensions, Islamic art, and photography histories. Her work interrogates spatial-temporal dynamics in African modernity and colonial art frameworks. Scientific Awards include CASVA Senior Fellowship, NEH Implementation Grant (with Allyson Purpura), Mellon Collaborative Grant (with Kenny Cupers), Clark Art Institute Residential Fellowship, and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship. Notably, she declined the National Humanities Center Fellowship and Stanford Humanities Fellows Program. Publications highlight Indian Ocean trade networks, Swahili Coast architecture, and photography's global circulation. Recent works (2020-2017) examine infrastructure as identity, oceanic materiality, and itinerant art historiography. Earlier articles (2016-2009) analyze porcelain trade, modernist discontents, and Swahili funerary practices. Contact: spm9@nyu.edu | 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003

• Art and architecture of Africa
• Port cities and visual cultures of the Indian Ocean world
• Comparative urbanism
• +4 more

Wu Hung is the Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, affiliated with The College , the Department of Art History , and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations . He serves as Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia and Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum of Art .

• Traditional Chinese Art
• Modern/Contemporary Chinese Art
• Art History
• +9 more

Valerie Hansen is the Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University's Department of History. She specializes in Chinese history to 1600, the Silk Road, and global medieval connectivity. Her research bridges legal, religious, and economic dimensions of pre-modern societies. Hansen’s work includes groundbreaking books such as The Year 1000 (2020), redefining globalization’s origins, and The Silk Road: A New History (2012), integrating archaeological and textual sources. She led the Luce Foundation-funded Silk Road Project (1995–1998), unifying Turfan artifacts. Her articles span legal pluralism in Silk Road cities, Liao dynasty material culture, and Viking exploration’s global impacts. Awards include American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellowship (2021) and Collège de France lectureship (2019). Hansen collaborates internationally, editing volumes on textiles as money and Song-Yuan studies. Her research emphasizes interdisciplinary methods, blending history with archaeology and art.

• Chinese History to 1600
• Global Medieval History
• History of the Silk Road
• +3 more

Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, specializing in archaeology and art history with a focus on cultural heritage and transnational trade routes. She holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and has served in prestigious roles including Board Chair of The New York Historical Society and Co-chair of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Objects Conservation Committee. Her academic contributions span UNESCO missions, international film collaborations, and co-founding institutions like the Tang Center for Early China and Silk Road Studies. Education: BA (Bryn Mawr College, Classical Languages & English Literature), MA (University of Pennsylvania, East Asian & Middle Eastern Studies), PhD (University of Pennsylvania, 2004). Research interests include early Chinese cartography, Silk Road cultural exchanges, and the intersection of art history with imperial geography. Her work bridges archaeology, art, and policy, addressing illicit cultural trafficking and heritage preservation. She has produced award-winning documentaries and serves on global arts and museum boards. Her publications explore topics such as ancient mapping techniques and Silk Road heritage. Awards recognize her academic and leadership roles in cultural preservation. She co-founded the Tang Centers and Hsu-Tang Library, advocating for interdisciplinary scholarship and global cultural dialogue.

• Art History
• Archaeology
• Cultural Heritage Studies
• +3 more

Hsueh-man Shen is the Director of Masters Studies and Ehrenkranz Associate Professor in World Art at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. She holds a D.Phil. from Oxford University in Archaeology, an M.A. in Art History from National Taiwan University, and an LL.B. in Law from the same institution. Her research focuses on medieval Chinese art and archaeology, particularly how cross-cultural exchanges shaped artistic practices through translation, replication, and hybridization. She has curated major exhibitions such as Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China’s Liao Empire (2006) and contributed to the Cave Temples of Dunhuang project (2016), emphasizing Silk Road cultural networks. Her current book project explores maritime activities’ impact on Buddhist art during the 10th–14th centuries. Shen’s work bridges art history, archaeology, and material culture studies, addressing topics like relic deposits, shipwrecks, and cross-cultural curatorial practices. She has held prestigious fellowships, including the Leiden University Hulsewé-Waznieski Professorship (2019) and a Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin residency (2008–2009). Education: D.Phil., Archaeology, University of Oxford M.A., Art History, National Taiwan University LL.B., Law, National Taiwan University Her research interests include Buddhist art’s transformation across dynasties, the role of replication in devotion, and maritime trade’s influence on cultural boundaries. She teaches courses such as Colors in the Visual Culture of Medieval China and Shipwrecks and the ‘Other’ Silk Road , integrating theoretical and material perspectives. Shen’s awards reflect her global academic contributions, including the EURIAS Senior Fellowship (2018–2019) and Progress 100 Visiting Professorship at Kyushu University (2017). Her publications span exhibition catalogues, monographs like Authentic Replicas: Buddhist Art in Medieval China (2019), and peer-reviewed articles analyzing Silk Road networks, Liao dynasty funerary practices, and cross-cultural material exchanges.

• Medieval Chinese Art and Archaeology
• Cross-Cultural Exchanges
• Buddhist Art
• +3 more

Robert Sharf is the D.H. Chen Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley . He also serves as Chair of the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies and Head Graduate Advisor for the Group in Buddhist Studies . With a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Michigan (1995), he previously taught at McMaster University (1989-1995) and the University of Michigan (1995-2003). Research Interests: Medieval Chinese Buddhism (especially Chan) Japanese Buddhism Buddhist Art and Archaeology Ritual Studies Buddhist Modernism Philosophical Paradoxes Methodology in Religious Studies Critical Buddhist Discourse Publications & Collaborations: Author of Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise (2002) Co-editor of Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context (2001) Co-author of What Can’t Be Said: Contradiction and Paradox in East Asian Thought (2021) Co-author of How to Lose Yourself: An Ancient Guide to Letting Go (2025) Editor of Chinese translations of his works: Xiafu Chanxue zixuan ji and Xiafu Mijiao Yanjiu zixuan ji (2022) Academic Leadership: Director of the Group in Buddhist Studies Director of Religious Studies Chair of the Center for Buddhist Studies

• Medieval Chinese Buddhism
• Chan Buddhism
• Japanese Buddhism
• +5 more

Xin Wen is an Associate Professor of Premodern Chinese History and History at Princeton University, holding dual appointments in the Department of East Asian Studies and the Department of History. He serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies and is affiliated with the Humanities Council and Behrman Faculty Fellows. His research focuses on medieval China and Inner Asia, particularly the Silk Road’s diplomatic networks and urban/cultural transformations in Chang’an. He earned a B.A. from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), an M.A. in Pre-modern Chinese History (Tang dynasty) from Peking University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies from Harvard University. Xin Wen’s work bridges historical analysis with archaeological evidence, using multilingual Dunhuang documents and excavated texts to explore trans-Eurasian connections. His first book, The King’s Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road , reinterprets the Silk Road as a diplomatic rather than commercial network. His second book project examines Chang’an’s post-Tang urban decline and cultural revival, funded by the American Council of Learned Societies. Collaborations include a study of Zoumalou’s third-century administrative documents with Brian Lander and Ling Wenchao. His research interests emphasize diplomatic history, Silk Road studies, urban transformation, and the interplay between memory and place. He actively publishes in journals like T’oung Pao and Journal of Silk Road Art and Archaeology , and his Chinese articles appear in leading journals such as Lishi yanjiu and Beijing daxue xuebao . Awards include the American Historical Association Prize for his first book. Grants and Funding: ACLS fellowship for his second book project. Labs/Teams: Collaborates with international scholars on Zoumalou documents and contributes to Brill’s publication efforts.

• Premodern Chinese History
• Inner Asian Studies
• Silk Road History
• +3 more

Eric Greene is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Yale University, specializing in medieval Chinese Buddhism. He has held academic positions since 2015, including Director of Graduate Studies at the Council on East Asian Studies. His research focuses on the transmission of Indian Buddhism to China, Chan/Zen Buddhism, and Buddhist meditation practices. He earned his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from UC Berkeley in 2012, with additional research at Kyoto University. Greene's work bridges historical analysis and textual criticism, particularly in early Chinese Buddhist texts such as the Vimalakīrti Sutra commentaries and meditation manuals. His publications include Chan Before Chan (2021) and The Secrets of Buddhist Meditation (2021), exploring meditation’s role in Chinese Buddhist identity and ritual. He has delivered invited lectures globally, addressing topics like Buddhist image worship, repentance practices, and comparative visions of meditation in medieval China and 19th-century psychology. Greene’s current research examines early Chinese Buddhist translation and commentary practices (150–350 CE), emphasizing how textual interpretation shaped Buddhist sinicization. His affiliations include the Yale Buddhist Studies Initiative and the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures.

• Asian Religions
• Medieval Chinese Buddhism
• Buddhist Meditation
• +3 more

Adeeb Khalid is the Jane and Raphael Bernstein Professor of Asian Studies and History at Carleton College, where he has been a faculty member since 1993. His scholarship bridges Central Asian history, Soviet studies, and postcolonial theory, with a focus on cultural transformations under imperial and revolutionary contexts. PhD and MA from University of Wisconsin-Madison President of Central Eurasian Studies Society (2005-06) Executive Board, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (2013-15) Key research areas include: Modern Central Asian history (1860s-present) Islam under Russian/Soviet rule Nation-building and colonialism Comparative imperial formations Language and identity politics Anticolonial movements in Eurasia His publications have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Turkish, and Korean. Recent articles examine: Post-Soviet Islamic historiography Colonial Turkestan's exclusion/inclusion dynamics Decolonizing Central Asian national identities Methodological debates in area studies Scientific recognitions: Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize (2008) Reginald Zelnik Book Prize (2016) Honorable Mention, Joseph Rothschild Prize Active in international academic collaborations, Khalid has held visiting positions at Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris and the Library of Congress's Kluge Center. He teaches courses on Russian Empire, Soviet Revolution, and Middle Eastern cultural history.

• Modern Central Asian History
• Soviet History
• Postcolonial Theory
• +4 more

Nile Green is the Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he served as founding director of the UCLA Program on Central Asia (2008-2016). His research bridges global history and Islamic studies, focusing on Muslim networks across India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia, and the Indian Ocean world. Specializes in inter-Asia and Indian Ocean studies Explores Sufism, Persian & Urdu travel writing, and Islamic print history Active on global Muslim interactions with non-Muslim societies His recent articles examine topics spanning Islamicate linguistics , transcultural art history , and historiographical methods , particularly in India, Afghanistan, and China. Earlier works established connections between colonial infrastructure and Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj), while his 2016 book The Love of Strangers documented early Middle Eastern students in Europe. Scientific awards include: Guggenheim Fellowship Luce/ACLS Fellow in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs Albert Hourani Book Award (MESA) Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Book Award (AAS) Bentley Book Prize (World History Association) Sir George Staunton Prize (Royal Asiatic Society)

• Global history
• Islam & Muslims in global history
• Inter-Asia
• +6 more

Cheng-hua Wang is an Associate Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology at Princeton University's Department of Art and Archaeology, with affiliations to the East Asian Studies Program and the Tang Center for East Asian Art. She specializes in Chinese painting, visual culture, and scroll paintings, focusing on their historical contexts, materiality, and intersections with political power and cultural identity. Education : B.A. in History, National Taiwan University (1985) M.A. in Chinese Art History, National Taiwan University (1989) Ph.D. in Chinese Art History, Yale University (1998) Research Focus : Thematic analysis of Qingming shanghe scroll paintings 18th-century Chinese city views and European stylistic influences Artistic materiality and heritage preservation in early 20th-century China Qing imperial collections and their post-Qing reinterpretation Collaborations : Actively engages with Princeton's Art Museum and Tang Center for East Asian Art to organize exhibitions and publish catalogs on Chinese art, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to scroll painting studies.

• Chinese painting
• Chinese visual culture
• Scroll paintings
• +6 more

Bryan K. Miller is an Assistant Professor of Central Asian Art & Archaeology in the Department of History of Art at the University of Michigan, with affiliations to the International Institute, Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies (CREES), Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, and the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia. He is also an Assistant Curator of Asian Archaeology at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. His research focuses on nomadic societies, steppe pastoralism, and empires in early East Asia, particularly the Xiongnu steppe empire. His work integrates textual analyses and material culture studies, including archaeological surveys in Mongolia and protein analyses of garment remains. Miller holds a PhD in East Asian Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania (2009), an MA in Archaeology from UCLA (2000), and a BA in Archaeology & East Asian Studies from Washington University in St. Louis (1997). His recent publications include a monograph on the Xiongnu and a co-edited volume on ritual and economy in East Asia. His current research examines the roles of steppe societies in shaping Eurasian exchanges, particularly along the Silk Roads. He teaches courses such as HISTART 265 (Arts and Cultures of Star Wars), HISTART 393 (Undergraduate Seminar), and HISTART 689 (Special Topics in History of Art).

• Central Asian Archaeology
• East Asian History
• Nomadic Societies
• +3 more

Yecheng (Kent) Cao is an Assistant Professor of Art and Archaeology at Duke Kunshan University and Duke University. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University (2019) in Chinese art and archaeology, an M.St. in Archaeology from the University of Oxford, and degrees in Archaeology and Anthropology from University College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research focuses on the intersection of art, technology, and transregional exchange in early Chinese societies. Research interests include the development of bronze industries in the Yangtze River region during the Shang-Zhou periods and the revival of bronze archaism in Song China and Kamakura Japan. His first monograph examines how indigenous bronze practices emerged from interactions with northern Chinese influences, rethinking Chinese state formation through frontier perspectives. He has received grants and fellowships from the Henry Luce Foundation, Getty Research Institute, ACLS, and the Smithsonian. Current projects explore medieval East Asian antiquarianism and ritual aesthetics. His teaching emphasizes global perspectives in art history and material culture analysis.

• Chinese Art
• Archaeology
• Bronze Metallurgy
• +3 more

Paul Michael Johnson is an Associate Research Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Irvine, and specializes in the cultural history of early modern Spain through interdisciplinary frameworks including emotion studies, sensory history, and performance theory. His research examines representations of the body, emotions, and cultural encounters in Spanish literary texts, particularly the works of Cervantes. Current projects investigate how soundscapes and voice mediate imperial violence in Mediterranean contexts, the transcultural adaptations of Spanish classics, and theoretical developments in Iberian studies. Publications demonstrate expertise in Cervantes scholarship while engaging critically with contemporary debates on race, gender, and translation. Recent works explore the aural dimensions of imperial power, back-translation practices in global contexts, and the religious dimensions of Cervantes' late romance. Dr. Johnson serves on the editorial board of LSU Press's New Hispanisms series and the advisory board of the Ibero-American Society for the History of Emotions. He has previously served on the executive council of the Cervantes Society of America.

• Early Modern Spanish Literature
• History of Emotions
• Sensory Studies
• +2 more

Eugene Wang is the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University and Founding Director of Harvard FAS CAMLab. He specializes in Buddhist visual culture, medieval Chinese art, and contemporary Chinese art and cinema. His research explores intersections of art with cognitive science, ecology, and technology, particularly through CAMLab’s projects like Digital Gandhara and Shadow Cave. Wang earned recognition for Shaping the Lotus Sutra (2005), which received Japan’s Sakamoto Nichijin Award. His work bridges historical art analysis with modern interdisciplinary approaches, including motion capture for Dunhuang dance and quantum network simulations. He serves as art history editor for the Encyclopedia of Buddhism and has held a Guggenheim Fellowship (2005). Key Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship (2005), Sakamoto Nichijin Academic Award (2005) Labs/Teams: Harvard FAS CAMLab (Cognition-Aesthetics-Mindscape Lab) Grants/Projects: Digital Gandhara (Afghanistan/Pakistan Buddhist site mapping), Shadow Cave (cognitive Buddhist cave studies) Wang’s focus on biocentric art and cognitive frameworks redefines art historical methodologies. His recent work integrates sensorial media with spiritual experience, reflecting his commitment to pushing interdisciplinary boundaries.

• Buddhist Visual Culture
• Medieval Chinese Art
• Contemporary Chinese Art and Cinema
• +6 more