Lee, Sonya

Assistant Professor
Department of Art History
213-821-2582
sonyasle@usc.edu

Professor Lee specializes in Chinese art and visual culture of the medieval period (5th-9th centuries). Her research has focused on Buddhist art along the ancient Silk Road. She is currently working on a book manuscript that deals with imageries of the Buddha Sakyamuni's nirvana in pre-modern China, exploring in particular issues of representation, cultural exchange, patronage, and spectatorship.
 
Education:
Ph.D. (Art History), University of Chicago, 2004
 
Selected Publications:
Lee, S.S. "A Site/Sight of Image-Text Opposition: The Reclining Buddha Precinct at Anyue, Sichuan" The Art Bulletin.

Lee, S.S. "Anticipating a Return of the Law: Cave Leiyin as Jingwan's Response to the Buddhist Prophecy of Decline" Artibus Asiae.

Lee, S.S. (2003) "Nirvana Buddha and Its Doubles: Coffin Image, Maitreya, and the Rhetoric of Continuity on the Art Institute of Chicago Stele." in Wu, Hung (Eds.)  Between Han and Tang: Visual and Material Culture in a Transformative Period, Beijing, China: Cultural Relics Publishing House, pp.191-234.

Lee, S.S. "The Pathway of Great Buddhas in Sichuan", The Pathway of Great Buddhas in Sichuan: NA, Beijing, China: Cultural Relics Publishing House.