Catherine Becker

Department of Art History (M/C 201)

211A Henry Hall

University of Illinois at Chicago

935 West Harrison Street

Chicago, IL 60607-7039

cathbeck@uic.edu                       

 

Education

 

Ph.D.        University of California, Berkeley, History of Art, December 2006

“Artistic Production and Ritual Performance at Amaråvat™ and other Buddhist stupas of Andhra Pradesh”

 

M.A.         University of California, Berkeley, History of Art, December 2000

             Thesis: “Innovative Imagery: An Analysis of the Theriomorphic

             Varåha at Eraª”

 

B.A.         University of California, Los Angeles, Art History, June 1996 

                              Summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

 

Present Position

University of Illinois at Chicago

     Assistant Professor of Art History, 2007-present

 

Previous Teaching Experience

Williams College

     Visiting Assistant Professor: Department of Art, 2006-07

 

Bates College

Visiting Lecturer: Department of Art and Visual Culture, Fall 2004

 

University of California, Berkeley

Instructor of Record: Department of the History of Art, 2002-2006

 

Graduate Student Instructor: Department of the History of Art, 1998-2001

 

Academic Honors

Awards

University of California, Berkeley

Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, 2003-04

 

Teaching Effectiveness Award for Graduate Student Instructors, 2003-04

 

Fellowships

University of California, Berkeley

History of Art Department Travel Grant, Winter 2006

(Research at the Amaråvat™ Kalachakra Initiation)

 

Qayum Family Foundation Travel Grant for Exploratory Research, January 2006

 

History of Art Department Travel Grant, Summer 2005

(Research in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh)

 

Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship, Spring 2005

 

History of Art Department Travel Grant, Summer 2003

(Dissertation research at the British Museum and British Library)

 

History of Art Departmental Fellowship, Spring 2002

 

History of Art Department Travel Grant, Winter 1999

(M.A. research in Madhya Pradesh, India)

 

Regents-Intern Fellowship, 1997-2001

 

Extramural Fellowships

Phi Beta Kappa Graduate Fellowship, Spring 2005

 

American Institute of Indian Studies, Junior Research Fellowship, 2002-2003

 

American Institute of Indian Studies, Summer Language Program Funding, 2001

 

Publications

“Remembering the Amaråvat™ St£pa: The Revival of a ‘Ruin.”’  In Buddhist St£pas in South Asia: Recent Archaeological, Art-Historical and Historical Perspectives, edited by Jason Hawkes and Akira Shimada, London and Delhi: School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) South Asia Series and Oxford University Press, forthcoming.

 

Review of Building Communities in Gujaråt: Architecture and Society during the Twelfth through Fourteenth Centuries, by Alka Patel, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, September, 2007.

 

Papers and Lectures

Paper, “Envisioning world peace in Andhra Pradesh: The visual culture of Kalachakra 2006,” Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 2006.

 

Paper, “The Colossal Buddha of Hussain Sagar: Hyderabad’s Answer to the Statue of Liberty?” and Panel Organizer, “On Political and Devotional Reuse: Perspectives on the Contemporary Refashioning of Buddhist Images,” Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 2005.

 

Lecture, “From the Miniature to the Massive: Buddhist Art of China, Korea and Japan,” Scholars and Samurai: Summer Institute for Secondary History, Geography and World Literature Teachers, University of the Pacific, June 2004

 

Lecture, “Stone by Stone: Patronage and early Buddhist art in India,” Society for Asian Art, San Francisco Asian Art Museum, August 2002

 

Panel Discussant, “Defining Parameters: The Image of the Feminine in South Asian Art and Literature,” South Asia Conference, University of California, Berkeley, February 2001