Catherine B. Asher

Professor

Office: 370 Heller Hall

Office Hours - Spring 2008

Tues, Thurs: 2:15 - 3:00
and by appointment

Phone: (612) 626-8339
Fax: (612) 626-8679

Catherine Asher is a specialist in Islamic Art and Indian Art from 1200 to the present. She is well known for her work on the architecture of the Mughal dynasty [ Architecture of Mughal India, Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed., 2001] as well as on the artistic patronage of their successors and predecessors. She has recently co-authored India before Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2006). Current research includes a study of Hindu, Jain and Muslim patronage particularly in the cities of Delhi and Jaipur. Recent articles include “A Ray from the Sun: Mughal Ideology and the Visual Construction of the Divine,” in The Presence of Light: Divine Radiance and Religious Experience, ed. Matthew Kapstein. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, “Mughal Regional Centers in Eastern India,” in The Ananda-Vana of Indian Art: Dr. Anand Krishna Felicitation Volume, eds. Naval Krishna and Manu Krishna. Varanasi: Indica, 2004,

“Amber and Jaipur: Temples in a Changing State,” in Marg: A Magazine of the Arts (2004), “Uneasy Bedfellows: Islamic Art and the Politics of Indian Nationalism,” in Religion and the Arts: A Journal from Boston College 8:1 (2004), 37-57, “Hidden Gold: Jain Temples of Delhi and Jaipur and Their Urban Context” in Jainism and Early Buddhism: Essays in Honor of Padmanath Jaini, ed. Olle Qvarnstrom. Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 2003, “Delhi Walled: Changing Boundaries,” in City Walls: The Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective, ed. by James Tracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000; “Mapping Hindu-Muslim Identities Through the Architecture of Shahjahanabad and Jaipur,” in Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia, edited by David Gilmartin and Bruce Lawrence (Gainesville: University of Florida, 2000).

Her past and current graduate students have written masters' papers and dissertations on a variety of topics ranging from the contemporary architecture of Morocco, Spain and Iran, Ottoman baths, Mughal painting, and Patronage under the Bijapuri Sultans, the photography of Shirin Neshat, the art and architecture of the Ranas of Udaipur to the impact of Gandhi’s thought on low cost housing in India just to give a few examples. Classes she teaches include Art of Islam, Age of Empire: Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals, Art of Islamic Iran, Diversity of Traditions: Indian Art, 1200 to the Present among others including graduate level seminars.

She just completed a terms as the College Art Association's Vice President for Publications as well as a ten-year term as the Chair of the Committee on Art and Archaeology of the American Institute of Indian Studies.

Site last modified on May 7, 2008

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