A little while ago we made two announcements: we have recruited two new editors for the “Asian Art” series on Dissertation Reviews, and we have also started a new series on “Museum Studies.” In the upcoming fourth season of Dissertation Reviews, we will continue to bring you reviews of dissertations, reviews of archives/libraries/museums/institutions, and “Talking Shop” critical reflections on Asian Art and on Museum Studies. Asian Art scholars: do not forget that we also have a Performance series and a brand new Asian Archaeology series. And Museum Studies folks: you may be interested in the “Print and Media Cultures” series as well. If you wish to participate in Dissertation Reviews, please click here to become a reviewer or to have your dissertation reviewed. You may also contact Noelle Giuffrida and Stephen Whiteman (for Asian Art), and Amy Barnes (for Museum Studies).
A teaser trailer…
Choi Sun-ah, “Quest for the True Visage: Sacred Images in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Art and the Concept of Zhen” (University of Chicago 2012), reviewed by Lin Wei-cheng (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Angela Chiu, “The Social and Religious World of Northern Thai Buddha Images: Art, Lineage, Power and Place in Lan Na Monastic Chronicles (Tamnan)” (School of Oriental and African Studies 2012), reviewed by Rebecca Hall (The Walters Art Museum)
Kevin Greenwood, “Yonghegong: Imperial Universalism and the Art and Architecture of Beijing’s ‘Lama Temple'” (University of Kansas 2013), reviewed by Wu Lan (Columbia University)
Hilary Snow, “Ema: Display Practices of Edo Period Votive Paintings” (Stanford University 2010), reviewed by Jeannie Kenmotsu (University of Pennsylvania)
Jeffrey Horsley, “Embedding the Personal: The Construction of a ‘Fashion Autobiography’ as a Museum Exhibition, Informed by Innovative Practice at ModeMuseum, Antwerp” (University of the Arts, London 2012), reviewed by Julia Petrov (University of Alberta)
Dimitra Christidou, “Does ‘Pointing at’ in Museum Exhibitions make a Point? A Study of Visitors’ Performances in three Museums for the use of Reference as a Means of Initiating and Prompting Meaning-making” (University College London, 2012), reviewed by Anna Catalani (University of Lincoln)
Jennifer Walklate, “Timescapes: The Production of Temporality in Literature and Museums” (University of Leicester 2013), reviewed by Marcela Garcés (Siena College)
Yael Rice, “The Emperor’s Eye and the Painter’s Brush: The Rise of the Mughal Court Artist, ca. 1546–1627” (University of Pennsylvania 2011), reviewed by Chanchal Dadlani (Wake Forest University)
And many more to come…!
Meet the editors
Noelle Giuffrida (Asian Art) is Assistant Professor of East Asian Art at Case Western Reserve University. Her research focuses on the history of collecting and exhibiting Chinese art and the visual culture of Daoism in Ming and early Qing China. Her forthcoming book, Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee’s Collecting, Exhibitions, and Canon of Chinese Painting in Postwar America, explores how the longtime Cleveland Museum of Art Director and Curator of Oriental Art established himself and the museum’s collection as preeminent in the field. Her book is part of a larger project on the history of acquiring and presenting Chinese art in the postwar era that examines the relationships, circumstances, and strategies of curators, private collectors, dealers, and institutions. [Website here]
Stephen Whiteman (Asian Art) is the 2012-2014 A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He earned his PhD in Art History at Stanford University. His dissertation, “Creating the Kangxi Landscape: Bishu shanzhuang and the Mediation of Qing Imperial Identity,” explores the role of landscape in the articulation of imperial identity during the early Qing dynasty. His publications include an essay in the volume Chinese History in Geographic Perspective (Du and Kyong-McClain, eds., 2013), and forthcoming work in Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes and from Dumbarton Oaks. [Website here]
Amy Barnes (Museum Studies) is Programme Manager in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. She has a background in Asian Art History and her AHRC-funded doctoral research at the University of Leicester (2005-2009) explored the collection, interpretation and display of Chinese Cultural Revolution-era visual culture in British museums. She is working on her first monograph, Museum Representations of Maoist China, to be published by Ashgate in 2014. In recent years she has co-edited three edited volumes published by Routledge: National Museums: New Studies from Around the World (2010), The Thing about Museums (2011), and Narrating Objects: Collecting Stories (2012). [Website here]
Image: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Photograph by J. Ash Bowie. Wikimedia Commons.
