Ja Won Lee

Ja Won Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at California State University, East Bay. Her research focuses on Korean visual and material culture, with an emphasis on art collecting, gender dynamics, and cross-cultural exchanges between Asia and Euro-America. She holds a PhD from UCLA and has held prestigious fellowships at Columbia University and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Education:

• BFA and MA from Seoul National University
• PhD in Art History from UCLA

Research Interests: Explores how art collecting influenced 19th-century Korean portraiture, gender roles in art patronage, Silk Road cultural exchanges, and connoisseurship practices. Her work bridges East Asian art with global modernism and Asian American cultural studies.

Awards & Grants:

• Mary Griggs Burke Postdoctoral Fellowship (2018-2019)
• Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellowship (2016-2017)
• Support from institutions like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Harvard-Yenching Institute

Teaching & Experience: Taught at Columbia University, UCLA, and the University of Hong Kong. Previously worked on Asian art exhibitions and conservation at museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Seoul National University Museum of Art.