We are very proud to celebrate (a bit belatedly) some of the recent fellowships, awards, and positions won by our graduate students over the course of last academic year–now supporting advanced training and innovative scholarship!  Graduate Predoctoral Fellowships/Awards Joseph Albanese -Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Spain Elizabeth Fair -Outstanding GSI Award Ellen Feiss -2022 Erasmus+ Global Engagement Fund, Freie Universität Berlin Lesdi Goussen Robleto -AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship Claire Ittner -Smithsonian Institute Predoctoral Fellowship (Will Barnet Fellowship) Vanessa Jackson  -Mentored Research Award, Graduate Division -Outstanding GSI Award Andrea Jung-An Liu  -Taiwan Governmental fellowship, Fall 2022-Spring 2023 Riad Kherdeen -Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship Grace Kuipers -Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum -Tyson Scholar of American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Rebecca Levitan -Phi Beta Kappa Fellowship -IES fellowship (Berkeley-Upsala) -Research grant from the Cycladic Museum in Athens -Spring: Simon Keay Fellow, British... [show more]

A lecture given by Maria Taroutina (Yale-NUS) will take place on November 4 at 12 pm in 308A Doe Library.

Nana Adusei-Poku  Dr. Nana Adusei-Poku is joining us as an assistant professor in African Diasporic art history this Fall '22. Her research and teaching interests include four central themes or areas: artistic production from the African Diasporas; cultural shifts and their articulation at the intersections of art, politics, and popular culture; curatorial practice as a research tool; and critical pedagogy in relationship to decolonize aesthetics--all explored within a truly interdisciplinary field linking art history, African diaspora studies, critical race theory, curatorial praxis, museum studies, gender and sexuality studies, feminist theory, and more. Current book projects include a study of Black Melancholia as condition and concept (we are thrilled to cite Nana's just-opened exhibition Black Melancholia at the CCS Bard Galleries, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, receiving serious appreciation in the press) and an edited volume, Reshaping the Field: Art of the African Diasporas on Display, for Afterall. Prior to Berkeley, Nana was a Term Associate Professor and Luma Scholar at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard, and held Research Professor positions at the Hogeschool Rotter... [show more]

Professor Emerita Joanna G. Williams, distinguished scholar of South and Southeast Asian art, passed away at her home in Berkeley on June 16, 2022, at the age of eighty-four. She was one of the foremost scholars of South and Southeast Asian art and architecture and, indeed, one of the most well-regarded for her seminal work on fourth- and fifth-century sculpture and architecture as well as later folk traditions. Born in southern Indiana, Williams received a B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1960 and a M.A. from Radcliffe College in 1961. She then received a Ph.D. from Harvard University for her dissertation titled Buddhist Wall Paintings of Khotan (1969). Williams joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in 1967, where she held a joint appointment in the Departments of History of Art and South and Southeast Asian Studies. Her distinguished career extended over four decades and included landmark publications such as The Art of Gupta India: Empire and Province (1982) and The Two-Headed Deer: Illustrations of the Rāmāyaṇa in Orissa (1996). Based on extensive fieldwork, The Art of Gupta India offered a groundbreaking analysis of Indian sculpture and architecture of the fourth and fifth centuries. Turning to debate... [show more]

We are excited to share with you the 2021-2022 issue of our departmental newsletter. A huge thanks goes to Julia Bryan-Wilson, Justin Underhill, Heather Reilly, and Julie Wolf. This link will take you to the newsletter.