Tamara Sears

Tamara Sears is Associate Professor of Art History at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where she specializes in the art and architectural history of South Asia, with additional expertise in medieval studies, religious art, colonial historiography, environmental history, and transregional cultural exchange.

Education:

• Ph.D., History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, 2004
• B.A., Wesleyan University, 1996

Her research explores the intersections of political power, religion, and sacred architecture, particularly in medieval India. She investigates how landscapes, mobility, and environmental factors shape artistic and architectural expression. Her work also engages with colonial archaeology, revivalism, and the politics of secularism in modern temple architecture. Sears employs interdisciplinary methods, drawing from archaeology, geography, religious studies, and postcolonial theory to analyze cultural production.

Her publications include the award-winning book Worldly Gurus and Spiritual Kings: Architecture and Asceticism in Medieval India (Yale University Press, 2014), which won the PROSE Award in Architecture and Urban Planning. She has published extensively in leading journals such as The Art Bulletin, Ars Orientalis, and postmedieval, with recent articles focusing on seismic ecologies, pilgrimage routes, and the materiality of travel. Her recent edited volume Paper Trails: Modern Indian Works on Paper from the Gaur Collection (2022) highlights modern Indian drawing practices.

Selected Awards and Fellowships:

• PROSE Award in Architecture and Urban Planning
• Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship (2012)
• National Humanities Center Fellowship (2016)
• Dumbarton Oaks Fellowship (2015–2016)
• Clark Art Institute Fellowship (2017)
• J. Paul Getty Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008–2009)

Sears has received significant research support from the Fulbright Program, the J. Paul Getty Foundation, the National Humanities Center, Dumbarton Oaks, and the Clark Art Institute. She is currently completing a second book on architecture, environmental history, and travel, and beginning a third on architectural revivalism and secularism in 20th-century temples. She teaches courses such as Art of India, Introduction to Asian Art, and Nature, Landscape, and Environmental Art History. She is also active in professional service, having been elected Vice President of the American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA), with a future term as President (2026–2030).

She is affiliated with the Department of Art History and conducts research in collaboration with international scholars and institutions. There is no indication of retirement or former status, confirming her active position in the academic community.