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Pinyan ZhuAssistant Professor

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Kansas, 2022
  • M.A., University of Kansas, 2016
  • B.Soc.Sci., University of Hong Kong, 2014

Biography

Pinyan Zhu's research focuses on the visual culture of Buddhism in China from the seventh to the eighth centuries, drawing on interdisciplinary studies of art history, ecocriticism, religion, landscape, and gender. Her dissertation focuses on the cliff-carved cave-shrines at the Longmen Grottoes in central China. Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, she held a position at Kent State University. She is interested in teaching Buddhist art, East Asian art and material culture, and eco-critical art history in East Asia.

Research Interests

  • Chinese Buddhist visual culture
  • Premodern material culture in China
  • Eco-critical art history

Selected Publications

"Posthumous Release for Lay Women in Tang China: Two Cases from the Longmen Grottoes," Religions 14, no. 3 (2023): 365

"Avalokitesvara in Gold: Art and Ideology at Contemporary Baodingshan," Études chinoises XXXVII-2 (2018): 83-100

"Advertise Antiquity and Consume Nostalgia: Chinese Pewterware in the Thayer Collection," in Perspectives on a Legacy Collection: Sallie Casey Thayer's Gift to the University of Kansas, ed. Celka Straughn (Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, 2021), 242-255