of Victoria
Visual StudiesNavigation
MA University of London, PhD University of California, Los Angeles
Visual cultures of early modern and contemporary South Asia
Melia Belli Bose
Curriculum Vitae
Department of Art History & Visual Studies
School or Fine Arts, University of Victoria
P.O. Box 1700
Victoria, B.C., V8W 2Y2, Canada
Employment
2018-present: Associate Professor, South Asian Art History, University of Victoria
2016-2018: Visiting Associate Professor, Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, University of Texas at Dallas
2010-2016: Assistant Professor of Asian Art History, University of Texas at Arlington
(awarded tenure and promotion 2016)
2009-10: Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow of Asian Art History, Washington University in St Louis
2006-2009: Adjunct instructor of art history: Pepperdine University, Malibu, Ca.;
Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, Ca.; Pierce College, Woodland Hills, Ca.; Irvine Valley College, Irvine, Ca.; Mount San Antonio College, Walnut, Ca.
Education
2009: Ph.D. South Asian Art History, University of California, Los Angeles
Minor: Islamic Art History
2000: M.A. South Asian Art History, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, England
Minors: Tibetan Art History, Hindi language
1999: B.A., Art History and Archaeology of Asia and Africa, SOAS
Awards and Fellowships
2024: Hari Sharma Foundation Arts and Cultural Grant
2022: American Institute of Bangladesh Studies Senior Research Grant
2022: Internal Research/ Creative Project Grant, UVic.
2019: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connection Grant
2019: Internal Research/ Creative Project Grant, Uvic.
2018: Pasold Research Fund, University of Edinburgh
2015: Award for Excellence in Teaching, Department of Art and Art History, UTA
2015: Asian Cultural Council Senior Research Fellowship
2015: American Institute of Bangladesh Studies Senior Research Fellowship
2014: Charles T. McDowell Center for Critical Languages & Area Studies, UTA, travel and research award
2013: Charles T. McDowell Center for Critical Languages & Area Studies, UTA, travel and research award
2013: Scott Opler Emerging Scholar Fellowship, Society of Architectural Historians
2005-6: American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Fellowship
2004-5: Edward A. Dickson Art History Fellowship, UCLA
2003-4: Edward A. Dickson Art History Fellowship, UCLA
Publications
Books
2024: Editor, Threads of Globalization: Fashion, Textiles, and Gender in twentieth-century Asia (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
2021: Editor, Intersections: Visual Cultures of Islamic Cosmopolitanism (Gainesville: University of Florida Press).
2016: Editor, Women, Gender and Art in Asia, ca. 1500-1900 (New York: Routledge).
2015: Royal Umbrellas of Stone: Memory, Politics, and Public Identity in Rajput Funerary Art (Leiden: Brill).
Edited Special Journal Issues
2024: “From Domestic Embroidery to 'Fast Fashion': Gendered Labor in Contemporary South Asian Textile and Fashion Industries,” Journal of South Asian History and Culture, 15/1.
2014: “The Arts of Death in Asia,” Ars Orientalis 44. Published by the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Michigan.
Articles and Book Chapters (* indicates peer-reviewed publications)
2024: “Uncomfortable Quilts: Textile-based Artivism in Response to
Bangladeshi Garment Factory Disasters,” Journal of South Asian History and Culture, 15/1.*
2024: “Introduction: Ties that Bind: Fashion, Textiles, and Gendered Labor in South Asia Today,” Journal of South Asian History and Culture 15/1.
2024: “Introduction: Stitching Together Gender, Textile/ Garment Labor, and Heritage in Asia,” introduction to Threads of Globalization. 1-25*
2024: “Made in Rana Plaza: Dilara Begum Jolly’s Affective Garment Factory-themed Art,” in Threads of Globalization. 284-313*
Forthcoming; “Amio: Gender-Based Violence in Contemporary Bangladeshi Art,” in Gender Violence, Art, and the Viewer: An Intervention, Cynthia Colburn, Ellen C. Caldwell, and Ella Gonzalez, eds. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press).*
2023: “The Razor’s Edge: Gender Politics and Structural Violence in the Work of Bangladeshi Artist Tayeba Begum Lipi,” in Women across Asian Art: Selected Essays in Art and Material Culture, Ling-en Lu and Allysa B. Peyton, eds. (Gainesville: University of Florida Press): 295-313.*
2022: “Cenotaph of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II at Gaitore,” “Cenotaph of Maharani Jodhiji,” in Masterpieces of the Jaipur Court, edited by Giles Tillotson and Mrinalini Venkateswaran (New Delhi: Nyogi Books).78-82; 170-172.
2022: “The Sum of Her Parts: Revealing and Concealing the Female Body,” in Preema Donna: An Infinite Journey… (Dhaka: Cosmos Books): 152-155.
2017: “A Modern Chakravartin: Mayawati’s New Buddhist Art,” Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia, edited by Tereza Kuldova and Matthew Varghese (London: Palgrave Macmillan): 139-169.*
2016: “Queens, Courtesans, and Collectors: Women’s Engagement with Art in Asia (15th- early 20th c.), in Women, Gender and Art in Asia.*
2016: “Royal Matronage and the Visual Vocabulary of Indian Queenship: Ahilyabai Holkar’s Memorial Commissions” in Women, Gender and Art in Asia.*
2015: “Entangled Tensions: Self, Society, and Identity in the Work of Three Bangladeshi Women Artists,” ArtAsiaPacific 96 (November/ December): 88-95. Also published in Mandarin and Arabic.
2015: “Descendants of the Moon: Royal Bhati Memorial Art in Bara Bagh, Jaisalmer,”Artibus Asiae 74 (2): 241-256.*
2014: “Between Heaven and Hell: Salvation, Damnation, and Memorialization in Death Art,” introduction to Ars Orientalis special issue: 7-17.*
2014: “Monumental Pride: Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Prerna Kendra,” Ars Orientalis, 85-111.*
2011: “Appropriation and the Articulation of Legitimacy in Scindia Funerary Art in Gwalior,” Archives of Asian Art 61: 91-106.*
2010: “Performing Paradigms of Modern Rajput Masculinity: Men’s Songs to Rao Gopal Singh of Kharwa,” Asian Ethnology 69 (1): 70-93.*
2009: “The Writing on the Wall: Images of Resistance and Authority in Maharaja Madhav Rao Scindia’s Wall Paintings in Gwalior,” Ars Orientalis 36: 7-36.*
2007: “In Memory of Gods and Kings: Power, Politics, and the Role of the Past in Royal Kachhawaha Cenotaphs,” Journal of South Asian Studies 23: 127-141.*
2007: “A Triumphant Homecoming: The Frieze Program on Sawai Madho Singh II’s Cenotaph,” Marg 59 (1): 44-54.
2007: “How a Princess Became a Goddess and a Memorial Became a Temple: Reading the Sacred and Secular Image at the Mahasati Mandir, Devi Kund Sagar,” Journal of the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas 28: 57-73.
Reviews, Encyclopedia Entries, and Other Essays
2022: “Exposing the Wound, One Stitch at a Time: Dilara Begum Jolly’s Artivism,” exhibition catalogue for Dilara Begum Jolly: In/Visible, Kala Kendra, Dhaka, pages unnumbered.
2021: “Maa-Maati-Manush-Swadesh-Bhasha-Prokkriti: Travelling with the Mother in Moheshkhali,” Dhaka Courier, an Independent Newsweekly 37/38 (2 April 2021): 51-53.
2021: “Noor e Muhammad: An Outré Artist’s Journey Toward the Light,” Exhibition Catalogue Essay for “Noor e Muhammad: Recent Paintings by Roni Ahmed, (Dhaka: Bengal Foundation): pages unnumbered.
2018: “Tayeba Begum Lipi,” AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions: https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/tayeba-begum-lipi/
2015: “Of Memory and the Body,” Exhibition Review of “No One Home,” World Sculpture News 21/4 (Autumn): 51-55.
2016: “War is Not for Peace”: War and Violence in the Art of Mahbubur Rahman,” Asian Art News (January): 64-68.
2015: “Artists in Conversation,” Exhibition Review of “Kaya: Artists in Conversation,” Asian Art News 25 no.5 (September /October): 56-60.
2015: “A Mother’s Love, a Woman’s Journey: The Paintings of Rokeya Sultana,” exhibition Catalogue Essay for “Rokeya” (Dhaka: Bengal Foundation): pages unnumbered.
2015: Exhibition Review of “Roni Ahmad, Gods and Beasts” ArtAsiaPacific, 10/02: http://www.artasiapacific.com/Magazine/WebExclusives/GodsAndBeasts
2015: “Dispatch Dhaka: Bringing the World to Dhaka and Dhaka to the World,” ArtAsiaPacific 95 (September/ October): 95.
2013: Santhi Kavuri-Bauer, Monumental Matters: The Power, Subjectivity, and Space of India's Mughal Architecture, CAA Reviews (invited)
2010: “Islam;” in Roger Long, ed. India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic, (Santa Barbara, ABC Clio), 362-366.
Conferences Organized
2023: “Gendered Threads of Globalization: 20th c. Textile Crossings in Asia-Pacific,” University of Victoria, supported by SSHRC Connection Grant.
2022: “South Asian Art History Graduate Student Symposium,” University of Victoria
2018: “Intersections: Visual Cultures of Islamic Cosmopolitanism” Co-organized with The Islamic Art Revival Series, The Aga Khan Council of Central United States, The Edith O’Donnell Institute for Art History at the University of Texas at Dallas, and The Dallas Museum of Art.
Panels Organized
2014: Organizer and chair: “Alternative Indian Feminine Paradigms,” National Women’s Society Annual Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2013: Organizer and chair: “The Politics of the Past in Modern Asian Architecture," Society of Architectural Historians annual conference, Buffalo, N.Y.
2012: Organizer and chair: “The Arts of Death in Asia,” Association of Asian Studies annual conference, Toronto, Canada.
2011: Co-organizer: “Gendering Circles of Power: Women’s Performances of Authority in South Asia,” Association of Asian Studies, annual conference, Honolulu, HI.
2010: Organizer: “Lieux de Mémoire in Asian Art,” Association of Asian Studies annual conference, Philadelphia, PA.
Select Conference Presentations
2023: “Ami O: Gender-based violence in the Work of Bangladeshi Women Artists,” La Donna e L'Arte conference, hosted by Italy Diocesan Museum of Catania, University of Catania, Academy of Fine Arts, and History Society of Eastern Sicily, Bronte Sicily, Italy.
2022: “Visualizing a Third Space: Contemporary Art and Indo-Canadian Identity,” Indian Association for South Asian Studies International Conference
Global South Asians: Transformative Experiences, Department of History
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.
2022: What We’ve Done is Exported Tragedy”: Artivists’ Responses to Bangladeshi Garment Factory Disasters, Company of Ideas, Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park, Hornby Island, B.C.
2020: “The Razor’s Edge: Gender Politics and Structural Violence in the Work of Bangladeshi Artist Tayeba Begum Lipi,” South Asian Studies Annual Conference, Madison, WI.
2019: “Translating Nature and Identity: Positioning Elizabeth Yeend Duer-Gyokusho’s Wildflowers in and Around Victoria in East Asia and Vancouver Island,” “Translations: The Art and Life of Elizabeth Yeend Duer-Gyokushō, 1889-1951,” Legacy Art Gallery, Victoria.
2014: “Mayawati's Lucknow: Making Subaltern Space in a Historic City,” European Conference on South Asian Studies, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
2013: “Monumental Pride: Mayawati’s Dalit Memorials in Lucknow,” Society of Architectural Historians annual conference, Buffalo, N.Y.
2012: “Female Authority, Caste, and Political Lineage: Chief Minister Mayawati’s Public Statues in Uttar Pradesh, India,” The Indian Phantasm: Imagining Multiple Indias in India and Beyond, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway.
2012: “In Memory of Kings and Courtiers: the Cenotaphs of Jodhpur,” Association of Asian Studies annual conference, Toronto, Canada.
2011: “Lineage and Legitimacy: Queen Ahilyabai Holkar’s Memorials,” Association of Asian Studies annual conference, Honolulu, HI.
2010: “A Visual Vocabulary of Queenship: Ahiliyabai Holkar’s Artistic Commissions,” American Academy of Religion annual conference, Atlanta, GA.
2010: “In Darbar in Death: The Iconography of Satī in the Royal Cenotaphs of Bikaner,” Association of Asian Studies annual conference, Philadelphia, PA.
2010: “Authority, Duty, and Denial: Archaized Memorials in Jodhpur,” Society of Architectural Historians annual conference, Chicago, IL.
Invited Talks
2023: “Monuments Matter: Ambedkar Memorials and Equitable Visibility in India and Beyond,” Ambedkar International Center, Accokeek, MD.
2023: Exporting Tragedy and Creative “Artivism” in Bangladesh, BRAC University, Dhaka.
2022: “Uncomfortable Quilts: Creative “Artivistic” Memorials for Bangladeshi Garment Workers,” Institute of Fine Arts, Chittagong University, Chittagong Bangladesh.
2022: “Punjabi Art and Activism,” Global South Colloquium - Punjab in the World: Histories, Politics, Migrations Lecture Series, University of Victoria.
2021: “The Razor’s Edge: Gender Politics and Structural Violence in the Work of Bangladeshi Artist Tayeba Begum Lipi,” Dean’s Lecture Series, University of Victoria.
2020: “The Arts of Death and Rebirth in South Asian Religious Traditions,” Society for Asian Art, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.
2019: “Made in Rana Plaza: Dilara Begum Jolly’s Garment Factory-themed Art,” Skidmore College.
2019: “Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Garments: Dilara Begum Jolly’s Affective Activist Art,” Pacific and Asian Studies Annual Colloquium, University of Victoria.
2018: “Joy Bangla or Bangladesh Zindabad?: Islam, Architecture, and Identity in a Changing Bangladesh,” keynote address, annual conference of the Middle East and Islamic Consortium of British Columbia, University of Victoria.
2017: “The Arts of Death and Immortality in China,” The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, Canada.
2016: “Danger and Domesticity: Gendered Perspectives from Three South Asian Women Artists,” Chittagong University, Bangladesh.
2016: “Buddhism, Caste, and Art in an Egalitarian India,” John Albert Hall Distinguished Lecture, Center for the Study of Religion in Society, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
2016: “Sacred and Secular Beauty in Islamic Art” lecture at the Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas.
2016: “Self and Society: the Work of Three Bangladeshi Women Artists,” Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
2015: “Art in the Service of History: Examples from Sri Lanka,” International Traineee Workshop and Conference for Young Historians, Department of History, University of Columbo, Sri Lanka, and the American Institute for Sri Lanakan Studies.
2015: “Possibilities: New Directions in South Asian Art,” Chittagong University, Bangladesh.
2015: “Art History in the Twenty-First Century: Research, Pedagogy, and the Canon,” University of Liberal Arts, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
2014: “The Kier Collection Fatimid Rock Crystal Ewer,” gallery talk at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA).
2014: “Islamic Art at the Dallas Museum of Art,” gallery talk and docent training workshop, DMA.
2014: “Nur: Divine Light,” gallery talk and docent training workshop on the special exhibition “Nur: Light in Art and Science from the Islamic World,” DMA.
2014: “Contemporary Buddhist Art in India: Community, Equality, and the Noble Past," South Asia Arts, Culture, Politics, and Science Symposium, University of Texas at Arlington (UTA).
2013: “Appropriation and Plagiarism in Contemporary South Asian Art,” lecture given at Athena Gallery of Modern Art, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
2013: “Recent Dalit Buddhist Art in India,” lecture to The Texas Indian Buddhist Community, Houston, TX.
2012: “Dalit Buddhist Memorials in Lucknow,” lecture delivered at The Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Day Celebration, organized by The Texas Indian Buddhist Community, Dallas, TX.
2012: “The Many Forms of the Divine,” gallery talk, DMA.
2012: “The Sacred Sensual: Hindu Art at the Dallas Museum of Art,” lecture and workshop at the DMA.
2011: “Devotion and Depiction: Buddhist Art at the Xiangtangshan Caves in China,” gallery talk, Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
2011: “Ahilyabai Holkar’s Architectural “Matronage,” lecture for the UTA Women’s Studies Program.
2011: “The Art of Enlightenment: Buddhist Art from Asia,” lecture, Kimbell Art Museum, Ft. Worth, TX.
2010: “Ecstasy and Enlightenment: Buddhist Art from the Himalayas,” gallery talk,
St Louis Art Museum.
2009: “Sacred Bronze Sculptures of South India,” gallery talk, St Louis Art Museum.
Teaching Experience
Lower level survey classes: non-Western Art; Asian Art
Upper level lecture classes: Early Arts of South Asia; Later Arts of South Asia; Art and Architecture of Korea and Japan; Art and Architecture of China; Islamic Art and Architecture; Art and Architecture of South and Southeast Asia; Painting Traditions of East Asia (China, Korea, Japan); Painting Traditions of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Tibet, Bangladesh)
Seminars: Buddhist Art in Asia; Sex, Gender, and the Body in South Asian Art; Mughal Art in India; Art of Ancient India; Islamic Architecture in India; Theories and Methods of Art History; Islamic Art (co-taught with Sabiha Al Khemir); Visual Translations: Topics in Trans-cultural Art History (co-taught with Richard Brettell)