Kate Lingley

Kate Lingley is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. She was educated at Harvard University, Peking University, and the University of Chicago, where she received her Ph.D. in 2004. Dr. Lingley's research focuses on Buddhist votive sculpture of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period in early medieval China, with a particular interest in the social history of religious art. Her dissertation was a study of donor figures as representations of the self-image of art patrons in the sixth century. She is interested in issues of representation and identity, particularly ethnic identity, in a period in which non-Chinese peoples ruled much of North China. This has led to a broader interest in questions of self-presentation and self-representation in visual culture at large, including dress and personal adornment as well as representational art. Selected bibliography: “The Patron and the Community in Eastern Wei Shanxi: the Gaomiaoshan Cave Temple Yi-society.” Asia Major vol. 23, part I, 2010. “Naturalizing the Exotic: On the changing meanings of ethnic dress in medieval China.” Ars Orientalis vol. 38 (forthcoming). Excelling the Work of Heaven: Personal Adornment from China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Art Gallery, 2007. “Just Like the Qing Dynasty: Internet Addiction, MMOGs, and Moral Crisis in Contemporary China.” With Alex Golub. In Games and Culture, vol. 2 no. 4, December 2007. “Social Histories of Buddhist Art in Medieval China.” In Religious Studies Review, vol. 33, no. 1 (2006). “The Multivalent Donor: Zhang Yuanfei at Shuiyusi.” In Archives of Asian Art, v. 56, 2006.