Dear friends and colleagues,
We are excited to share an upcoming special event hosted by VMPEA! On Next Friday, October 11 at 4:30-6:30pm in CWAC 156, Jiayi Zhu (EALC), Sylvia Wu and Sizhao Yi (Art History), three PhD students who participated at the UChicago/Getty Traveling Seminar in summer 2019 will share their observations and reflections on the trip. Let’s kick of the new academic year by joining their round-table style presentations of “Cave art from Xi’an to Dunhuang: Observations from the UChicago/Getty Traveling Seminar”! Apart from fresh ideas and visual materials, there will be plenty of refreshments and pizza.
Warmly,
Zhenru & Yin
UChicago/Getty Traveling Seminar visiting Mogao Cave 85, Dunhuang, China, August 2019. Photo by Li Yuxuan.
Persons with concerns regarding accessibility please contact Zhenru Zhou (zhenru@zhenruzhou.com) and Yin Wu (yinwu@uchicago.edu).
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Jiayi Zhu is PhD student at the East Asian Languages & Civilizations Department. Her area of study is Medieval China, Japan and Korea. Jiayi received her BA from Middlebury College (Anthropology and Environmental Studies) in 2014, and her MA from Columbia University (East Asian Buddhism) in 2017. Her research focuses on Esoteric Buddhism and Buddhist art in East Asia from 7th to 10th century.
Sylvia Wu is a PhD student in Islamic art and architecture. Her primary research interests revolve around the medieval Indian Ocean trade routes, a network connecting the coastal areas of East and South Asia, the Gulf, and East Africa. She seeks to foreground the dynamics of cultural activities seen in these regions that have been traditionally deemed outside of, or on the rims of the so-called Dar al-Islam. Through examining the artistic enterprises sponsored, executed, and used by individuals and communities with diverse backgrounds, Sylvia aspires to construe the transmission of knowledge within and beyond the network, which facilitated, or was formed by, the regional visual and material cultures. Sylvia received her MA from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University with a thesis on imperial Ottoman silks. She has interned in the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Sizhao Yi is a PhD student in East Asian art and material culture with a particular interest in objects from late imperial China. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Hong Kong in 2016, and her MA from the University of Chicago in 2017. Her master’s thesis examined two embroidered jackets excavated from an imperial tomb of the Ming Dynasty, which she encountered during her internship at the textile conservation department in the Archeology Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
