Melissa R. Kerin

Assistant Professor of Art History

Education

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, Department of the History of Art
Dissertation Topic: 15th-17th-Century Buddhist Wall Paintings of India's Western Himalaya

MTS Harvard Divinity School, World Religions Program (Buddhist Studies)

B.A. Trinity College, Hartford, CT (Women's Studies)

Teaching

I teach courses in South Asian (including Tibet and the Himalayas) and East Asian Art and Architecture. My research focuses on the intricate and multifaceted relationships between art and identity formation (political and cultural), cultural memory, and religious praxis.

Selected Publications

Books and Catalogues:

Forthcoming Many Lives of an Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Temple, Indiana University Press.
2009 Artful Beneficence: Selections from the David Nalin Collection. New York: Rubin Museum of Art Publications.

Articles and Reviews:

2010 "Visual Evidence of 'Bri-Gung Activity in Nako, Kinnaur." In Proceedings of the Eleventh Seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Bonn, 2006, edited by Erberto Lobue and Christian Luzcanits. Leiden: Brill.
2008 "Reflections on Amy Heller's Early Himalayan Art" in www.asianart.com/articles/reflections/index.html
2007 "Little-Known Late-12th-Century Wall Paintings in Ladakh's Markha Valley." Orientations 38, no. 4: 54-59.

Honors and Awards:

2010 Edward C. Dimock, Jr. Book Prize in the Indian Humanities: Awarded by the American Institute of Indian Studies for the best unpublished book manuscript on an Indian subject.
2008-2009 Mellon/ACLS Recent Doctoral Recipients Fellowship: One-year post-doctoral fellowship
2007-2008 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship: One-year fellowship for finishing the dissertation.