With many thanks to Yuthika Sharma, it is our great pleasure to announce an exciting public lecture to be held on the 7th November. This keynote lecture is part-funded by CSAS and part of the first ACSAA conference to be held in the UK:
- 18:00-19:30 KEYNOTE (West Court Lecture Theatre)
- Remarks by Heather Pulliam (Head of History of Art, ECA)
- Vidya Dehejia (Columbia University), Chaired by Adam Hardy (Welsh School of Architecture)
- To the Divine Through the Path of Beauty: An Exploration
West Court Lecture Theatre and Sculpture Court, Edinburgh College of Art Main Building (Enter from Lady Lawson Street), 74 Lauriston Place Edinburgh EH3 9DF
Vidya Dehejia is the Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian and South Asian Art at Columbia University.
In the course of her career, Vidya Dehejia has combined research with teaching and exhibition-related activities around the world. Extensive field travel in South Asia, with visits to sites of importance in Southeast Asia, has given her first hand familiarity with the art of the region. Her background in classical Sanskrit and Tamil, and knowledge of a range of modern Indian languages has proved invaluable. Her writings have incorporated translations of ancient poetry, and material from unpublished manuscripts, in order to illuminate an artistic milieu. She has explored at length the theoretical basis for the portrayal of visual narratives in the context of India's sculpture and painting, and has examined issues of gender and colonialism. Over time, her work has ranged from Buddhist art of the centuries BC to the esoteric temples of North India, and from the sacred bronzes of the South to the art of British India. Management and curatorial experience at the Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries provided broader scope to convey the excitement of her field to non-specialist audiences.