Nancy P. Lin
Assistant Professor, History of Art and Visual Studies
Academic focus:
Modern and contemporary art from China and its diasporas, architecture and urbanism, performance art
Current research project:
My first book project, “Art On-Site: Situating Global Contemporaneity in 1990s China,” explores the aesthetic and socio-political stakes for how and why artists during this period began to work “on-site” in everyday urban spaces such as city streets, construction sites and other unconventional locations.
Previous positions:
Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornell University, 2021-2024
Academic background:
Ph.D., Department of Art History, The University of Chicago, 2021
M.A., Department of Art History, The University of Chicago, 2017
B.A., Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, 2011
Last book read:
How about the last exhibition seen instead? “Shanshui: Echoes and Signals” at M+ Museum, Hong Kong
In your own time/when not working:
I enjoy sketching and watercolor painting, swimming and cycling with the Finger Lakes Cycling Club. In the wintertime I like to downhill ski and ice skate.
Courses you’re most looking forward to teaching:
I look forward to introducing art history and its methods to undergraduate students in my fall semester course Art Histories: An Introduction, which will focus on the theme of materiality across different periods and cultures.
What most excites you about Cornell:
I’m excited to build interdisciplinary connections with the many students and faculty at Cornell working at the intersection of Asian studies and global modern and contemporary arts and culture, and I especially look forward to continuing my collaborations with the Johnson Museum of Art.
