Past Fellows

Charles Lang Freer Fellow

Suyog Prajapati
“Monasticism and Urbanism in the Kathmandu Valley (ca. 15th–18th centuries CE)”

The year-long Charles Lang Freer Fellowship enabled me to work on my dissertation project, which traces the role of Buddhist monastic architecture in the development of urban settlements in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. Utilizing resources at the National Museum of Asian Art, the fellowship advanced my doctoral work by facilitating independent research and close mentorship.

My fellowship duration had three main outcomes. Firstly, I completed a dissertation chapter, in which I posit that the materiality of architectural forms—set against natural and built topography—distinctly shaped Kathmandu Valley’s premodern monastic spaces and institutions. By examining the role of durable objects, sacred spaces, and monuments, I was able to reconstruct the historical context in which a royally sanctioned monastery was formed in the densely settled city of Bhaktapur.

Secondly, storage and gallery visits with my mentors, Drs. Debra Diamond and Emma N. Stein, allowed me to look closely at sculptures, paintings, and illuminated manuscripts from across the Nepali Himalayas and Tibetan regions. Of note were the life-sized wooden figure of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara and large cloth paintings of Tibetan masters. Comparisons between artistic styles, artisanal technologies, and material makeup of such objects helped develop arguments about transregional circulations for other chapters of my dissertation and a standalone conference paper.

Thirdly, I had the distinct opportunity to work with the Mary Slusser Collection. Slusser’s immense archival material, including scholarly correspondence and rare archaeological photographs, were invaluable for understanding changes in Nepal’s historic urban fabric in the last seventy years. These primary sources have significantly augmented my firsthand fieldwork-based data.

Smithsonian Institution Fellow

Tina Zhang
“Narrative-landscape Painting in 14th–16th century China”

My research examines a group of large-scale landscape paintings with prominent human figures created during the early and middle Ming periods. These paintings look like large landscapes when viewed from afar but reveal narrative elements upon closer inspection. They stand at the crossroads of two traditionally defined genres—landscape and figure painting—and invite multiple modes of interpretation.

During my fellowship, I focused on paintings depicting recruitment stories, which grew increasingly popular during the Ming dynasty. These works recount stories of rulers seeking out and inviting virtuous and talented individuals to accept official appointments. Previous scholarship generally emphasized the paintings’ political implications, interpreting them as promoting positive imperial publicity for the Ming court. However, paintings of recruitment stories from the Ming dynasty convey a more complicated set of meanings than prevailing interpretations suggest. One significant aspect is that these works creatively weave storytelling into a landscape composition, presenting an innovative mode of narrative representation distinct from those of earlier periods. Meanwhile, certain works within this group suggest a shifting reading of recruitment stories away from the celebration of imperial rulership.

The fellowship allowed me to closely examine three paintings of recruitment stories in storage, along with other Ming paintings of the time, and to study relevant archival sources. It also supported several research trips to examine related works in other art museums on the East Coast. This research will be integrated into one chapter of my dissertation.

Han Chen
“Tangled Transactions: Transnational Dealership and Global Knowledge of Chinese Art, 1900–50”

During my Smithsonian Institution Fellowship at the National Museum of Asian Art, I conducted archival and objects-based research on how market-based agents, including dealers, collectors, and institutions, collaborated across national and cultural boundaries to redefine Chinese art in the first half of the twentieth century. Over the course of six months, I examined dealer correspondence, exhibition records, museum acquisition files, and curatorial notes, with particular attention to materials related to American collector Charles Lang Freer, German-Chinese dealer A. W. Bahr, Shanghai-based dealer Li Wenqing, and Chinese diplomat Huang Zhonghui. Meanwhile, I closely studied specific burial earthenware and archaic jades that once passed through their hands and are now held in NMAA’s collections.

By integrating archival research with digital tools of social network analysis to reconstruct the transnational collecting circuits, my research demonstrates that these market actors played a crucial yet hitherto unrecognize role in reframing tomb provenance from a marker of ethical transgression into a desirable sign of authenticity, which contributed to the formation of “Chinese funerary art” as a field of connoisseurship.

The fellowship allowed me to frame my project as a sustained study of how Chinese art was redefined through the early twentieth-century global art market, offering new interpretations that position the art market as a critical site of epistemic transformation and market-based agents as central actors in the knowledge production of art-historical discourses. Access to critical collections and archives and close engagement with curators and scholars at NMAA significantly advanced my research and supported my ongoing work on the global circulation of Chinese art.

Smithsonian Institution Senior Fellow

Dr. Syed Ali Akbar Husain
“Feasting and Wellness: Food in Indo-Muslim Literary and Lived Cultures (17th–19th Centuries)”

Food as a sensory pleasure and as a means of health and well-being are the principal overlapping domains of my investigation into the subject of “Feasting and Wellness.” This research is centered on the Perso-Islamic culture of the Indian subcontinent from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. The aspect of “food as sensory pleasure” was researched in visual and textual material during a yearlong fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The aspect of “food for wellness” was envisaged, therefore, as the thrust of my research at the National Museum of Asian Art.

Toward this end, research was initiated at the Library of Congress’s Naqvi Collection jointly held by the Asian Division for Urdu-language items (which are part of the South Asian Rare Book Collection) and the African and Middle Eastern Division for items in Arabic and Persian. The original Naqvi Collection handlist that was compiled by the collection owners included a range of items within my area of interest on Tibb-Mujarrabāt (traditional medicine and traditional prescriptions).

Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my control, these could not be examined. Nor was I able to utilize the resources of the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. As such, my research remained somewhat inconclusive, although I am happy about my meeting with my mentor, Dr. Richard Kurin. Dr. Kurin’s research on methods of agricultural practice in a small village in Punjab province, Pakistan, reveals that the conceptual framework of traditional Indo-Muslim medicine continues to hold importance in the present day in promoting crop health as much as it contributes toward human health.

J.S. Lee Memorial Fellow

Dr. Xueyan Zhou
“A Study of a Longquan Celadon Collection from an Archaeological Perspective”

Supported by the Bei Shan Tang Foundation, I conducted research at the National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) on Longquan celadon, one of China’s most renowned ceramic traditions, which has been integral to the interregional trade between Asia and North Africa since the eleventh century. My project focused on the nature of “black-bodied” Longquan celadon, a technically refined class produced primarily during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). Stylistically akin to Guan ware yet distinct from mainstream Longquan production, its identity has long been debated. Through a close study of archaeological materials and objects from NMAA’s collections, including a critical group of black-bodied shards collected in the 1930s at Longquan and donated by C. F. Yau, I developed a typological chronology. This analysis supports the argument that the early objects within this black-bodied category constituted imperial wares destined for courtly use rather than commercial imitations. To contextualize Longquan’s wide-reaching impact further, I examined shards from Fustat, Angkor, and Bagan to understand more fully the trade network and cross-cultural reception of this ware. A related study on Longquan’s overseas circulation and kiln industry exchange is currently in preparation. Additionally, I was able to see nearly one hundred Chinese celadons, with emphasis on Longquan ware in seven other US museum collections. This survey provides essential primary material for future studies.

Anne van Biema Fellow

Stephanie Su
“Materiality, Tactility, and Transmedia Aesthetics in Onchi Kōshirō’s Prints: Rethinking Modern Japanese Art”

Initially, my research at the National Museum of Asian Art focused on the Japanese artist Onchi Kōshirō’s work from the 1920s to the 1940s, his contribution to the early development of abstraction in Japan, and his use of the color white. Over the course of nine months, I was able to study over 165 prints; these included works by Onchi but also his contemporaries, which deepened my understanding of the rich and diverse approaches to printmaking in modern Japan. The research was further supported by the museum’s scientific analysis of white pigments. I was also able to conduct additional research in Boston and Tokyo and present my preliminary findings at the College Art Association conference in New York.

As a result of my fellowship, I have expanded my project into a book-length study, which revises existing scholarship on the relationship between the Creative Print and New Print movements, offering a more nuanced interpretation that underscores their shared interest in tactility and color. My research has also allowed me to challenge the assumption of Japanese dependence on European ideas by highlighting how travel to China and Korea and interest in photography played a critical role in shaping modern Japanese artistic practice. The fellowship also helped me build an international scholarly network and collaborate with colleagues in both Japan and Europe on a project that examines the formative years of abstraction in a global context.

Charles Lang Freer Fellow, University of Michigan

Vrinda Agrawal
“Gendered Connoisseurship of Pahari Painting in the 18th and 19th Centuries”

The goal for the University of Michigan’s Charles Lang Freer Fellowship (Fall 2024) was to study early modern Pahari paintings with an emphasis on those that portray women to understand how they created spaces of pleasure and leisure for themselves. The collections at the National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) have some important examples that show not only the leisure of elite women but also how the labor of other women contributed to this lifestyle. Generally, such portrayals are formal and hierarchical, mirroring the ritualistic durbar (“court”) scenes of male rulers and aristocrats. However, the study revealed that some paintings in the collections depict rare moments of companionship and playfulness that cut through rigid layers of sociopolitical hierarchies within zenanas (“women’s spaces”). These examples capture the artists’ careful manipulation of popular and well-circulated idealized tropes and offer rare insight into the cultural lives of early modern Pahari women. In the absence of a textual archive, the visual becomes an archive that, when read closely, reveals the awareness of artists’ patrons and audiences as well as the appropriation of ideals of cultural refinement and power. Furthermore, due to the vast range of South Asian art at NMAA, which spans across regions and time periods, the fellowship allowed me to place the images within the broader context of the dynamic practice of South Asian connoisseurship.

Srishti Sankaranarayanan
“To Sit, Stand, and Exhibit: Bases and Pedestals of Southern Indian Bronzes”

The primary research focus of the University of Michigan Charles Lang Freer Fellowship was a close examination of the pedestals (pīṭham) of ten bronze sculptures from South India in the collections of the National Museum of Asian Art. This study investigated the role of these pedestals in mediating the interaction between portable bronze deities, their myriad processional conveyances, and the immobile stone temples in which they reside. As a terminal feature composed of architectural moldings and loti form designs, a pedestal becomes the site of the figural deity’s enlivenment in consecration rituals and their dais in processions. My research at the museum further revealed that the pedestals, dated between the tenth and sixteenth centuries, closely mirrored the architectural form of basement platforms (ādiṣṭhānam) found in coeval stone temple complexes in present-day Tamil Nadu in Southeast India. This connection suggests that pedestals did more than just support and frame the figures they carry—they also visually extended the power of the temple site into the public space of processions and festivals as the deities moved through the streets. This insight significantly informs my ongoing doctoral dissertation project on the design of South Indian wooden temple-cars. The Freer Fellowship supported foundational work that now underpins a key argument in the dissertation: in religious processions, the pedestal acts as an intermediary structure, transferring the sacred power of the stone temple to the wooden temple-car, and then to the boundaries of the temple site.

Ebrahimi Fellow for Persian Art

Zahra Kouzehgari , Université Lumière Lyon 2, and Laboratoire Archéorient, Lyon, France
“A Semiotic Approach to Interpreting Feminine Iconography on Persian ‘Luristan Bronzes’”

The overarching goal of the three-month Ebrahimi Fellowship at the National Musuem of Asian Art (NMAA) was to explore gender and power dynamics in the Iron Age society of Luristan (ca. 1240–550 BCE) through a semiotic approach. The primary focus was the study of Luristan bronzes housed at NMAA and the Baltimore Museum complemented by an in-depth analysis of excavated artifacts from Sukh Dum at the Metropolitan Museum and the Penn Museum (University of Pennsylvania). Offering a broader perspective on the artistic and cultural expressions of the region, the fellowship provided a unique opportunity to deepen our understanding of human representations through Luristan objects.

Preliminary findings offered a critical re-reading of feminine representation and gender roles within Luristan society. These insights challenged long-held interpretations of the “master/mistress of animals” motifs depicted on the bronzes and led to a fresh analysis of the power dynamics reflected in these artifacts. It underscored the complex sociocultural structures of Luristan and highlighted the symbolic roles assigned to women in these ancient societies. The fellowship allowed me to advance the discourse on gender representation in ancient southwest Asia, contributing to a broader understanding of identity, authority, and social organization in early Iron Age societies. By having access to critical collections and fostering engagement with experts, the fellowship was instrumental in advancing my research trajectory and laid the groundwork for further scholarly contributions to the study of the Ancient Near East.

Rebecca Selch, Harvard University
“The Riza-yi ‛Abbasi Album and the Making of Persianate Drawing”

My research project concerned an album of drawings known as the “Riza-yi ‛Abbasi Album” (F1953.12-60) from seventeenth-century Iran. The larger project addresses two questions: (1) How has this album shaped the study of Persian drawing? and (2) What does the album reveal about the way drawings were made in seventeenth-century Iran? Thanks to the Ebrahimi Fellowship for Persian Art, I was able to advance the second part of the project especially through sustained study of the drawings in storage and through conservation. The discoveries were multiple: close-looking revealed outlines were first commonly traced with diluted ink, artists employed multiple pouncing methods, and scraps of pink paper on several folios revealed they once had borders. Visits to the conservation lab were especially illuminating; there, it was determined that some of the supports were likely tracing “papers”—either extremely thin paper or skin—and the single example of blue paper in the album was likely of Persianate manufacture and probably resulted from a dipping of the paper in dye. These findings, which could only have been arrived at by in-person looking, provide new insight into the tools and techniques of seventeenth-century artists. The Ebrahimi Fellowship not only allowed the opportunity to examine the works but also, through generous discussion with curators, conservators, and fellows, helped to narrow the project’s future focus on copying and intermediary works.

New York University Public Humanities Fellow

Emily Everest-Phillips

“Curatorial Practices and Research on the Ancient Near East Collection”

Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow

Mahwish Chishty, University of Massachusetts
“Bridging Traditional Art with Contemporary Realities of War”

During my Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, I conducted a cross-disciplinary investigation into the aesthetics, mechanics, and ethical implications of US military drone warfare, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Under the guidance of Dr. Roger Connor, Museum Curator (Aeronautics), my research focused on technical drawings and archival materials related to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) housed at the National Air and Space Museum. This access provided a rare opportunity to study the design and historical development of drones such as the Predator, Reaper, and Global Hawk—machines whose impact is felt intimately yet seen infrequently by the civilians they surveil. A visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center to view the Predator drone on display was also particularly important.

In parallel, I explored the spiritual and cultural significance of lapis lazuli and gold within South Asian paintings, working closely with curators at the National Museum of Asian Art. Dr. Debra Diamond facilitated a close examination of select paintings using a stereo microscope to study and photograph them. Some paintings include gold leaf for the sky, a technique that further underscores the symbolic importance of these materials in the region’s art.

This research traced the historical journey of these materials from ancient Afghan mines to sacred and imperial art objects. By juxtaposing these paintings with the stark, anonymous forms of military drones, my work examines the psychological toll and cultural rupture caused by surveillance and warfare.

The fellowship profoundly impacted my practice, and my research will inform a new body of paintings that combine traditional techniques with contemporary political themes to offer a more layered meditation on power, violence, and visibility. The opportunity to engage with the Smithsonian collections has greatly expanded the scope and depth of my research-based artistic inquiry.

Smithsonian Institution Fellow

Kathleen Ryor, Carleton College
“Scopic Regimes of Botany and Cosmology in Chinese Painting of the Ming Dynasty”

For the Smithsonian Hart Senior Fellowship, my project examined bird-and-flower handscrolls in the Freer’s Chinese painting collection of the National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA). I studied handscrolls that featured spurious Song and Tuan dynasty signatures, comparing their subject matter, style, and composition to identify the group as a body of workshop paintings created during the Ming dynasty. These works have been ignored in art historical narratives of Chinese painting because they have been dismissed as fakes of varying artistic quality. After viewing and analyzing these handscrolls, I found that many exhibit a high degree of skill and remarkable attention to botanical detail, and their sheer number suggests a workshop production for which there was a robust market starting in the Ming dynasty.

While there is a body of scholarship on workshop painting in the Ming period, the subject matter of plants and insects has not received attention in part due to the unidentified motifs. During my fellowship, I comprehensively identified the plant species depicted in the handscrolls, determining that the majority did not represent examples that figure prominently as bearers of symbolic or literary meaning in Chinese culture. In addition, I connected the plants with those mentioned in texts such as local gazetteers, materia medica, and garden records. As a result of this research, I am writing an article that argues for their place in a regional tradition of botanical imagery.

Helena Chen-Abair, University of Florida
“The Forging of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from the Mid-19th to the Early 20th Century”

The goal of my yearlong Smithsonian fellowship was to study the forgery of ancient Chinese bronzes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with a particular focus on the techniques of falsifying inscriptions and their impact on epigraphic scholarship. The interdisciplinary research project involved close object viewing, technical analysis, and archival research. With the help of the National Museum of Asia Art’s Conservation Department, I was able to examine several authentic bronzes with falsified inscriptions using XRF, X-ray, and microscopic analyses. I also consulted the archival records of many relevant bronzes. Previously forgotten and mislabeled archives related to the unpublished third volume of The Freer Chinese Bronzes on inscriptions with a large section on the problem of forgery contributed significantly to my research. My investigations facilitated a deeper understanding of the technical evolution of nineteenth-century forgeries, enabling a more precise dating of a group of falsified inscriptions. The identification of two bronzes in the Freer Collection produced by the same forger group further illuminated the workshop practices of a traceable Shaanxi forger cohort. Analysis of lab files revealed early American approaches to the technical study of Chinese bronzes and how the presence of forgeries could potentially shape the understanding of bronze casting technology.

Visiting Researcher

Amida Sholan, Sana’a University
“The Repatriated South Arabian (pre-Islamic Yemen) Collection at the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.”

During my stay at the National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA), I conducted an in-depth study of the ancient South Arabian objects from the 2023 repatriated collection. This research involved visiting the Smithsonian Institution’s storage facilities, including NMAA and the National Museum of Natural History, which allowed me to analyze the inscriptions at the base of the funerary steles of Al-Jawf in northwestern Yemen. In addition to researching the steles, I reviewed the Wendell and Marilyn Phillips South Arabian Collection and the Joseph Hirshhorn Collection with particular focus on inscribed objects.

During the fellowship, I was also able to see other collections (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Catholic University, Washington, DC) and discuss my work with other colleagues. The fellowship also provided me with invaluable insight into potential future scientific collaborations with the Smithsonian Institution. In addition, I learned about exhibitions, storage, digital archiving, and museum databased systems.

My findings will be published in collaboration with Dr. Antonietta Catanzariti in the English-Arabic catalogue The National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Collection of Funerary Stelae from the Jawf Valley, which will be a significant contribution to the field of ancient Yemeni archaeology and inscriptions.

Anne van Biema Fellow

Dr. Freya Terryn, KU Leuven
“Reevaluating the Bunmei Kaika Cameraman: The Art and Life of Utagawa Hiroshige III”

Dr. Andrea (Nina) Horisaki-Christens, Columbia University
“Participatory Technologies and the Techno-orientalist Gaze: How the video camera and the photocopier reshaped ideas of public space in 1970s Tokyo and why the world misunderstood”

Dr. Miriam (Mimi) Chusid, University of Washington
“Envisioning the Afterlife: Image, Text, and Ritual Practice in Premodern Japan”

Ebrahimi Fellow for Persian Art

Amanda Leong, University of California, Merced
“Bearded Women, Cross-Dressers and Powerlifters: Female Javanmardi in the Early Modern Persianate World”

Dr. Leila T. Yazdi, Iranology Foundation (Shahid Beheshti University)
“Enchanted by the Gol: Persian Bird and Flower Painting in the Second Half of the 18th Century”

Charles Lang Freer Fellow, University of Michigan

Ross Lee Bernhaut, University of Michigan
“Gwalior’s Giant Jinas: Desecration, Reimagination, Restoration”

Youngshin Yook, University of Michigan
“Morphing Landscape: Hung Hsien’s Ink Abstractions at the Freer Gallery of Art”

Smithsonian Institution Fellow

Xiaoyi (Diana) Yang, Bard Graduate Center
“Migrating Dragons across the Sea: Zhangzhou Ceramics for Japan and Southeast Asia”

Xiangming Chen, University of Oxford
“Marketing Chinese Art in the Tokugawa World: Painting Manuals and China Fad in Early Modern Japan”

Visiting Researcher

Dr. Michael Garbutt, University of New South Wales

Anne van Biema Fellow

Dr. Talia Andrei, Wesleyan University
“Sacred Journeys and Institutional Rivalries”

Dr. Yasuko Tsuchikane
“Dōmoto Inshō and the “Sacred Art World”: The Making of Modern Temple Art in the Twentieth Century”

Charles Lang Freer Fellow, University of Michigan

Holley Ledbetter, University of Michigan
“Objects of Wonder in the Fatimid World”

Sandra Williams, University of Michigan
“Mardānagi/ Zanānagi: Gender Representation in Persianate Painting”

Smithsonian Institution Fellow

Junyao He, The Courtauld Institute of Art
“The Scarred Faces: Smallpox and Manchu Masculinity in portraiture of Qing China”

Alireza Khounani, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU
“The Magnitude of Small Change: The Role of Low-value Currencies in the Internal Economy of West Asian Empires (Achaemenid, Seleucid, Arsacid, and Sasanian Periods, 550 BCE-651 CE)”

ARIAH East Asia Fellow

Xingrui Lai, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
“Tribute Animals from foreign lands: A case study of the Foreign Beasts”

Visiting Researcher

Bong Kang, Gyeongju University
“A Study on the Bangudae Petroglyphs in Conjunction with Whaling during the Neolithic Korea”

Yoshitaka Yamamoto, National Institute for Japanese Literature

University of Glasgow-Smithsonian Fellow

Kristina Astrom, University of Glasgow
“Of Fans and Butterflies: The Folding of Subject and Mediality in the Works of James McNeill Whistler and Stéphane Mallarmé”

Freer Fellow, University of Michigan

Michelle al-Ferzly
University of Michigan
“‘Adab Oblige’: The Art of Medieval Islamic Dining, 850-1450”

Museum Research Fellows

Sunwoo Hwang
Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea

Janet O’Brien
The Courtauld Institute of Art

New York University Public Humanities Fellow

Robin Joyce
Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for American Art

Kerry Roeder
University of Delaware, Newark
“Whistler, Dewing and Tryon: Gilded Age Intersections at the Freer Gallery of Art”

Smithsonian Institutional Fellowship Program

Yun-chen Lu
University of California, Santa Barbara
“A Left-Turn to Artistic Eccentricity: Gao Fenghan (1683-1749) and Disability Art in Premodern Yangzhou”

Harrison Schley
University of Pennsylvania
“Converging Canons: The Freer Collection and the Japanese National Treasures System”

Rashmi Viswanathan
University of Hartford
“Receiving the Global Modern: Private Politics of Interest in Post-War United States”

Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellows

Jananne Al-Ani

Diana al-Hadid

Shiraz Bayjoo

Imran Qureshi

Alice S. Kandell Fellow in Thangka Conservation

Margaux Ruon
Ecole de Condé, Paris
“Treatment of Thangkas in the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room from the Alice S. Kandell Collection”

Museum Research Fellows

Sunwoo Hwang
Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea
“Research on Chinese Buddhist Murals from the Tenth to Twelfth Century”

Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for American Art

Kerry Roeder
University of Delaware, Newark
“Whistler, Dewing and Tryon: Gilded Age Intersections at the Freer Gallery of Art”

Smithsonian Institutional Fellowship Program

Janet O’Brien
The Courtauld Institute of Art
“Portraits of Nādir Shāh of Iran and their role in forging the rise of Persian royal portraiture, 1722-1925”

Serena Qiu
University of Pennsylvania
“Mounting Pacific Ambitions: American Imperialism Responds to East Asian Empire at United States World’s Fairs 1876-1915”

Diego Tamburini
University of Pisa, Italy
“Exploring the transition from natural to synthetic dyes in the production of 19th-century ikat textiles from Central Asia”

Yan Weitian
University of Kansas
“Yi Bingshou (1754-1815) and Antiquarianism in Qing China”

Anne van Biema Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow

Sonia C. Coman-Ernstoff
Columbia University, New York
“Cross-cultural Adaptations of Visual Culture in Japan and the Euro-American World, Then and Now”

Freer Fellow, University of Michigan

Robert Święcicki Morrissey
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Enlivening the Living Image: Icons of Divine Youths in Medieval Japanese Religious Traditions”

Freer|Sackler Museum Training Fellows

Wen Li

Sunwoo Hwang
Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea
“Research on Chinese Buddhist Murals from the Tenth to Twelfth Century”

Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for American Art

Kerry Roeder
University of Delaware, Newark
“Whistler, Dewing and Tryon: Gilded Age Intersections at the Freer Gallery of Art”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Pre-doctoral Fellows

Bronwen Gulkis
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
“Mughal albums in the era of the Emperor Shahjahan (r. 1628-58) and his successors”

Gillian (Yanzhuang) Zhang
Ohio State University, Columbus
“Image-Making and Intermediality in China (1683-1839)”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Postdoctoral Fellows

Leqi Yu
University of Pennsylvania

Visiting Senior Korean Scholar

Eunwoo Jeong
Dong-A University

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow

Zhi Chao Lyu
Jinyuan Culture Development Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China
Chinese painting conservation

Anne Van Biema Fellows

Sonia Coman
Columbia University, New York
“Freer’s Japanese Ceramics: The Formation and Diffusion of Discourses on Japanese Arts”

Aya Ryusawa
Kinjo Gakuin University, Nagoya, Japan
“A Study on the Effect of Image Circulation on Narrative Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Japan”

Ariah East Asia Fellow

Li Ziru
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
“Chinese Paintings in the Song and Yuan Dynasties”

Freer Fellow, University Of Michigan

Susan Dine
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Representations of Language in Early Medieval Japanese Buddhist Art”

Freer|Sackler Curatorial Fellow For Southeast Asian Art

Emma Stein
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
“Southeast Asia at the Freer|Sackler: Past, Present, Future”

Freer|Sackler Research Fellow

Koto Sadamura
University of Tokyo, Japan
“Hokusai’s Legacy: Kawanabe Kyosai’s Artistic Approach to the Old Master”

Freer|Sackler Museum Training Fellows

Wen Li

Sunwoo Hwang
Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea
“Research on Chinese Buddhist Murals from the Tenth to Twelfth Century”

Luce Fellow In American Art

Kerry Roeder
University of Delaware, Newark
“Whistler’s Watercolors in the Freer Gallery of Art”

Smithsonian Institution History Of Art Senior Fellow

Pariwat Thammapreechakorn
“Chinese Trade Ware Found in South Asia: Advances in Origin, Dating, and Identity”

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow

Zhi Chao Lyu
Jinyuan Culture Development Co., Ltd, Shanghai
“Chinese painting conservation”

Ariah East Asia Fellow

Hyo-Eun Park
Institute for East-Asia Cultural Exchange, Korea University, Seoul, Korea
“Shitao’s Paintings and His Influence of the Pictorial Representations of Nanjing and Yangzhou”

Freer Fellow, University Of Michigan

Chun Wa Chan
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Faith in Hand: Rescaling Buddhism and Buddhist Material Culture in Early Japan”

Freer|Sackler Curatorial Fellow For Ancient Near Eastern Art

Antonietta Catanzariti
University of California, Berkeley
“Ceramics, Economy, and Social Practices: A Study of the Freer│Sackler Collection of Ancient Iranian Vessels”

Freer|Sackler Curatorial Fellow for Southeast Asian Art

Emma Stein
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
“Southeast Asia at the Freer|Sackler: Past, Present, Future”

Freer|Sackler Research Fellow

Koto Sadamura
University of Tokyo, Japan
“Hokusai’s Legacy: Kawanabe Kyosai’s Artistic Approach to the Old Master”

Evelyn Eaton
Sidwell Friends School
“Investigating Global Competencies through Art with Early Childhood Learners”

Freer|Sackler Training Fellow

Wen Li

Korean Cultural Foundation Global Museum Fellow

Sunwoo Hwang
Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea
“Research on Chinese Buddhist Murals from the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries”

Luce Fellow In American Art

Kerry Roeder
University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
“Whistler’s Watercolors in the Freer Gallery of Art”

Smithsonian Institution History Of Art Predoctoral Fellow

Yecheng Cao
Princeton University
“Comparative Studies on the Yangtze Bronzes in the Freer and Sackler Galleries”

Murad Khan Mumtaz
University of Virginia
“Sufi Icons: Mullah Shah, Jahanara, Dara Shikoh, and the Birth of a Genre”

Smithsonian Institution History Of Art Postdoctoral Fellows

Mei Rado
Bard Graduate Center
“Arresting Silk: Textiles, Representation, and Narrative in Late Imperial China”

Holly Shaffer
Dartmouth College
“Viral Media: European and American Prints of India”

Smithsonian Institution History Of Art Senior Fellow

Charlotte Horlyck
University of London
“Collecting Korean art and the rise of the Korean art market, 1880-1950”

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow

Zhi Chao Lyu
Jinyuan Culture Development Co., Ltd, Shanghai
“Chinese painting conservation”

Anne Van Biema Fellow

Frank Feltens
Columbia University, New York
“Living Day by Day: The Art and Life of Ogata Kōrin”

Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer
Heidelberg University, Germany
“Postwar Avant-Garde Calligraphy in Japan and Its Internationalization”

Freer Fellow, University Of Michigan

Rebecca Bloom
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Creating Context, Conjuring Experience: Innovative Approaches to Displaying Buddhist Art”

Ashley Dimmig
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Flexible Façades, Malleable Modernity: Imperial Tents in the Late Ottoman Period”

Freer|Sackler Curatorial Fellow For Ancient Near Eastern Art

Antonietta Catanzariti
University of California, Berkeley
“Ceramics, Economy, and Social Practices: A Study of the Freer│Sackler Collection of Ancient Iranian Vessels”

Freer|Sackler Curatorial Fellow for Southeast Asian Art

Danny Eijsermans
Leiden University, the Netherlands
“Buddha: Image in Context. Tensions between the Aesthetic and the Sacred Uses of Buddha’s Depiction”

Freer|Sackler Research Fellows

Alessandro Bianchi
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
“Digital cataloguing of the Gerhard Pulverer collection”

Julie Nelson Davis
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
“Ukiyo-e in Context”

Sana Mirza
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
“Qur’an manuscripts from the eighth to eighteenth century”

Andrew Pekarik
“IPOP at Freer and Sackler exhibitions”

Koto Sadamura
University of Tokyo, Japan
“Hokusai’s Legacy: Kawanabe Kyosai’s Artistic Approach to the Old Master”

Freer|Sackler Training Fellow

Wen Li

Hagop Kevorkian Fund Fellow

Claire Cuyaubere
National Institute for Cultural Heritage, Paris
“Conservation of Islamic ceramics”

Korean Cultural Foundation Global Museum Fellow

Soohyun Yoon
National Museum of Korea
“The Reception and Function of Christian Art in Early Modern East Asia”

Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellow

Hugh Livingston

Smithsonian Institution History Of Art Predoctoral Fellow

Emma Stein
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
“All the Streets Lead to Temples: Mapping Monumental Histories in Kanchipuram, circa 690–1199 CE”

Giorgi Papashvili
Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and National Research Center for Georgian Art History, Georgia
“Visualizing Modern Georgian Painting and Photography around 1900”

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow

Zhi Chao Lyu
Jinyuan Culture Development Co., Ltd, Shanghai
“Chinese painting conservation”

Freer|Sackler Conservation Research Fellow

Raquel Santos
Centre for Overseas History (CHAM-FCSH) and New University of Lisbon (UNL), Portugal
“New Carpets for New Markets: The Production and Consumption of Indo-Persian Carpets, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries”

Freer|Sackler Curatorial Fellow

Simon Rettig
“Islamic works on paper”

Freer|Sackler Research Fellows

Alessandro Bianchi
Cambridge University, United Kingdom
“Digital cataloguing of the Gerhard Pulverer collection”

Sana Mirza
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
“Qur’an manuscripts from the eighth to eighteenth century”

Freer|Sackler Public Affairs and Marketing Fellow

Melissa Brashear

Freer|sackler Training Fellow

Wen Li

Hagop Kevorkian Fund Fellow

Claire Cuyaubere
National Institute for Cultural Heritage, Paris
“Conservation of Islamic ceramics”

Hirayama Fellowship

Eina Kirihara
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo
“Japanese painting conservation”

Korean Cultural Foundation Global Museum Fellow

Seung Hee Oh
Seoul National University Museum, Korea
“Goryeo Buddhist painting”

Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellows

Lauren Jane Alexander
Ghalia Elsrakbi

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Predoctoral Fellow

Mira Xenia Schwerda
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
“Visualizing Modernity: Photography, Print Culture, and Painting in Nineteenth-Century Iran and Central Asia”

Smithsonian Institution Minority Awards Program Fellow

Priyanka Srinivasa
Cambridge University, United Kingdom
“Anthropological Perspectives and the Politics and Poetics of Displaying Religious Art”

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow

Zhi Chao Lyu
Jinyuan Culture Development Co., Ltd, Shanghai
“Chinese Painting Conservation”

Anne Van Biema Fellow

Kristopher Kersey
University of California, Berkeley
“Manifold Implication: a Japanese Fan Inscribed by Hosokawa Yūsai (1535–1610)”

Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellow

Borbala Nyiri
University of Leicester, United Kingdom
“Study of Southeast Asian Tradeware Ceramics”

Foundation for Science and Technology Fellow

Raquel Santos
Centre for Overseas History (CHAM-FCSH) and New University of Lisbon (UNL), Portugal
“New Carpets for New Markets: the Production and Consumption of Indo-persian Carpets, 16th and 17th Centuries”

Freer and Sackler Curatorial Fellow

Simon Rettig
“Books for the Prince and Books for All? Rethinking the Workshop in the Persianate World (1300–1750)”

Fulbright Fellow

Radchada Buntem
Silpakorn University, Thailand
“Spectroscopic Characterizations of Ancient Glass Beads”

Hagop Kevorkian Fund Fellows

Claire Cuyaubere
National Institute for Cultural Heritage, Paris
“Conservation of Islamic Ceramics”

Amanda Hope Malkin
Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
“Conservation of Islamic Manuscripts”

Hirayama Fellowship

Eina Kirihara
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo
“Japanese Painting Conservation”

Korean Cultural Foundation Global Museum Fellow

Soojin Jung
Seoul National University, Korea
“Goryeo Buddhist Paintings”

Robert H. N. Ho Foundation of Hong Kong Visiting Scholar

Jie Chang
Palace Museum, Beijing
“Chinese Painting Conservation”

Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellow

Praneet Soi
“Research in the Collections of South Asian Art and Arts of the Islamic World”

Smithsonian Institution Fellows

Amy E. Hughes
New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, Conservation Center
“Analysis and Examination of James McNeill Whistler’s Watercolors”

Chika Mori
Boston University
“Analysis of Dyes on East Asian Textiles”

Molly McGath
University of Arizona
“Development of GCMS Protocols for the Analysis of Artists’ Materials”

Stacy Bowe
University College of London
“Whistler’s Watercolors: Radiographic Study of Watermarks”

Waliporn Suthabanditpong
Silpakorn University, Thailand
“Spectroscopic Characterizations of Ancient Glass Beads”

Rong Wang
Fudan University, Shanghai
“Alteration of Chinese Jades”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Postdoctoral Fellows

Moonsil Lee Kim
University of California, Santa Barbara
“The Use-context and the Potential Poisoning of Food and Liquid Caused by Containers From the Bronze Age to the Early Imperial Period (Ca. 1600 BCE–220 CE)”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Predoctoral Fellows

Vivek Gupta
Columbia University, New York
“The Art of Transcultural India and the Patronage of ‘abd Al-rahim Khan-i Khanan”

Gregory Seiffert
Princeton University, New Jersey
“The Album Format in Seventeenth-century Nanjing Painting”

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow

Yi-hsia Hsaio
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Chinese Painting Conservation”

Anne Van Biema Fellow

Hank Glassman
Haverford College
“On the Iconography, Ritual, and History of the Gorintō Grave in Japan”

Freer Fellowship, University of Michigan

Vivian Li
University of Michigan
“Contemporary Asian Art”

Fulbright Fellow

Radchada Buntem
Silpakorn University, Thailand
“Spectroscopic Characterizations of Ancient Glass Beads”

Fundação Para a Ciência E Tecnologia Fellow

Raquel Santos
Centre for Overseas History (CHAM-FCSH) & New Univerity of Lisbon (UNL), Portugal
“New Carpets for New Markets: the Production and Consumption of Indo-persian Carpets, 16th and 17th Centuries”

Hagop Kevorkian Fund Fellows

Claire Cuyaubere
National Institute for Cultural Heritage, Paris
“Conservation of Islamic Ceramics”

Amanda Hope Malkin
Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
“Conservation of Islamic Manuscripts”

Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow

Simon Rettig
Kunsthistorisches Institut Der Freien, Universität Berlin
“Books for the Prince and Books for All? Rethinking the Workshop in the Persianate World (1300–1750)”

Museum Training Fellow

Kailin Weng

Robert H. N. Ho Foundation of Hong Kong Visiting Scholar

Chang Jie
The Palace Museum, Beijing
Chinese Painting Conservator

Smithsonian Institution Fellows

Amy E. Hughes
New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, Conservation Center
“Analysis and Examination of James Mcneill Whistler’s Watercolors”

Chika Mori
Boston University
“Analysis of Dyes on East Asian Textiles”

Molly McGath
University of Arizona
“Development of GCMS Protocols for the Analysis of Artists’ Materials”

Stacy Bowe
University College of London
“Whistler’s Watercolors: Radiographic Study of Watermarks”

Waliporn Suthabanditpong
Silpakorn University, Thailand
“Spectroscopic Characterizations of Ancient Glass Beads”

Wang Rong
Fudan University, Shanghai
“Alteration of Chinese Jades”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Postdoctoral Fellow

Brice Vincent
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
“Casting Core Materials From Angkorian Bronzes”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Predoctoral Fellow

Gregory Seiffert
Princeton University
“The Album Format in Seventeenth-century Nanjing Painting”

University of Maryland Fellow

Madeline Gent
University of Maryland
“Chinese Paintings From the Ming and Qing Dynasties”

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow

Yi-Hsia Hsaio
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Chinese Painting Conservation”

Anne Van Biema Fellow

Asato Ikeda
University of British Columbia
“Translating Fascism: Japanese Painting During the Fifteen Year War (1931–1945)”

Forbes Fellow

Chika Mori
Boston University
“Analysis of Dyes on East Asian Textiles”

Freer and Sackler Conservation Fellows

Wenhui Chen
Fujian Museum
“Chinese Painting Conservation”

Ana Luisa Do Vale Fonseca Claro
Universidade Nova De Lisboa
“Asian Organic Colorants Used in Chinese Textiles Dated From the 16th to 17th Centuries: Their Use, Trade, Influence and Characterization”

Ana Raquel Martins Dos Santos
Universidade Nova De Lisboa
“New Carpets for New Markets: the Production and Consumption of Indo-persian Carpets, 16th and 17th Centuries”

Molly McGath
University of Arizona
“Development of GCMS Protocols for the Analysis of Artists’ Materials”

Yae Takahashi
Chinese Organic Colorants

Freer and Sackler Curatorial Fellows

Myounghee Jeong
National Museum of Korea
“Buddhist Art and Ritual: a Comparative Study on the Production of Ritual Paintings in China and Korea”

François Lachaud
École Française d’Extrême-Orient
“Melancholy and the Modern Japanese Metropolis: Kobayashi Kiyochika and His Legacy”

Hagop Kevorkian Foundation Fellow

Claire Cuyaubere
National Institute for Cultural Heritage, Paris
“Objects Conservation”

Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow

Simon Rettig
Kunsthistorisches Institut Der Freien, Universität Berlin
“Books for the Prince and Books for All? Rethinking the Workshop in the Persianate World (1300–1750)”

J.S. Lee Memorial Fellows

Ling Lizhong
Shanghai Museum
“Song to Qing Dynasty Calligraphy and Painting”

Yan Yong
The Palace Museum
“Chinese Imperial Textiles and Court Portraits of the Qing Dynasty”

Library Travel Grants

Philip K. Hu
Saint Louis Art Museum
“Conflicts of Interest: the Lowenhaupt Collection of Japanese Military Prints and Related Materials at the Saint Louis Art Museum”

Guolong Lai
University of Florida
“Digging Up Chu Mortuary Religion: Death and Burial in Early China”

Ling-en Lu
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Chinese Paintings Collectors in the Early Modern Period: the “Painting Collections in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Other Western Museums”

Jong Phil Park
University of Colorado, Boulder
“Between Artists and Dilettantes: the Social Use of Painting Albums and Manuals in Qing China, Chosŏn Korea, and Edo Japan”

Thammika Songkaeo
University of Texas at Austin
“Servicing Japanese Taste: Hokusai’s Manga in Nineteenth-century French Tableware”

Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow

Michael Joo
Independent Artist
“Digitization and Perception of the Object”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Post-doctoral Fellow

Nachiket Chanchani
University of Michigan
“Text and Textile in Western India: the Case of the Freer Vasanta Vilasa”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Pre-doctoral Fellow

Huang I-Fen
Brown University
“Late Imperial Chinese Embroidery and Tapestry: Technical Innovation, Gender Relations, and Marketing Strategies”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Senior Fellow

John Siewert
College of Wooster
“James McNeill Whistler and the Aesthetic Landscape of London”

Smithsonian Minority Awards Program Visiting Student

Hamidreza Jayhani
The Art University of Isfahan
“Comparative Study on the Perceptible Images From Poets and Painters Stance to Recognize the Structures of the Open Spaces in the Illustrated Garden’s Scenes From 14th to 16th Centuries CE”

Anne Van Biema Fellow

Ignacio Adriasola
Duke University
“Melancholy Sites: the Affective Politics of Marginality in Post-Anpo Japan (1960–70)”

Forbes Fellow

Federico Carò
University of Pavia
“Mineralogy of Ancient Southeast Asian Materials”

Freer and Sackler Curatorial Fellow

Shuko Koyama
Edo-Tokyo Museum
“Studies of the Robert O. Muller Collection of Japanese Prints”

J.S. Lee Memorial Fellow

Sun Miao
Palace Museum, Beijing
“Projects in Exhibition Design”

Lunder Fellow

Margaret Laster
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (1828–1887): Gilded-age Patron; Lunder Consortium for Whistler Studies Inaugural Symposium (in Honor of Margaret Macdonald)”

University of Maryland Museum Fellowship

Suzie Kim
University of Maryland
“1930s Modernism in Germany and Japan”

Hauge Curatorial Fellow

Pariwat Thammapreechakorn
Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum, Bangkok
“New Perspectives on South East Asian Ceramics”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Senior Fellow

François Lachaud
École Française d’Extrême-Orient
“Melancholy and the Modern Japanese Metropolis: Kobayashi Kiyochika and His Legacy”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Pre-Doctoral Fellows

Huang I-Fen
Brown University
“Late Imperial Chinese Embroidery and Tapestry: Technical Innovation, Gender Relations, and Marketing Strategies”

Lamia Balafrej
University of Aix-Marseille I
“Illustrated Manuscripts of Sa’dî in the Freer and Sackler Galleries”

Conservation of Museum Collections Postgraduate Fellowship

Elisabetta Polidori
Scuola Di Alta Formazione
“Survey of Islamic Art on Paper From the Collections of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and Scientific Investigation of a Group of Illuminated Folios From the Gulistan.”

Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship

Avish Khebrezadeh
Independent Scholar
“Animal Behavior and the Role of Animal Imagery in Allegorical Contexts”

Anne van Biema Fellow

Alfred Haft
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
“Correspondences between the Classical World and the Floating World (Ukiyo) of the Edo period”

Forbes Fellow

Federico Caro
University of Pavia
“Mineralogy of Ancient Southeast Asian Materials”

J.S. Lee Fellows

Chan Lai-pik
Chinese University of Hong Kong
“Animal-shaped Jade Carvings and Bronzes in the Pre-Qin Dynasty; Reinstallation of Freer Chinese Galleries”

Xiong Yingfei
Shanghai Museum
“The Glaze of Iron and Copper Colorants in Ancient Chinese Ceramics: Composition and Technique Studies”

Lunder Fellow

Margaret Laster
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (1828–1887): Gilded-Age Patron; Lunder Consortium for Whistler Studies Inaugural Symposium (in Honor of Margaret MacDonald)”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Fellows

Terra Foundation for American Art Postdoctoral Fellow

Prudence Ahrens (shared appointment with the Smithsonian American Art Museum)
University of Queensland
“Travelling Modernisms: American Art and the South Pacific”

Elizabeth Lee (shared appointment with the Smithsonian American Art Museum)
Dickinson College
“Therapeutic Culture: Health and Illness in Turn-of-the-Century American Art”

Smithsonian Institution History of Art Predoctoral Fellows

Brinda Kumar
Cornell University
“Collecting South Asian Art: Analyzing Private Positions, Public Narratives and the Writing of Art History”

Seung Yeon Sang
Boston University
“Influence and Reception of Hybrid Ceramics: The Ceramic Production of the Japan House Kilns during the 17th to 18th Centuries”