Maya Stiller

Professor Maya Stiller specializes in Chosŏn period (1392-1910) Korean art and visual culture. After double majoring in Korean Studies and Art History for her BA and MA, she spent several years of field research in Korea and Japan, followed by a doctoral degree in Korean Art History from Freie Universität Berlin in 2008, and a Ph.D. in Asian Languages & Cultures (focus: Korean History and Buddhist Studies) from UCLA in 2014. From 2015 until 2018, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University's Department of Art History and Architecture and a fellow at Harvard University's Korea Institute. As an art historian with an interdisciplinary approach, professor Stiller explores visual interpretations of Buddhist faith and ritual practice in Chosŏn Korea. Her most recent article, “Slaves, Village Headmen, and Aristocrats: Patronage and Functions of Buddhist Sculpture Burials in Late Koryŏ and Early Chosŏn Korea,” will be published in Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, while another article, “The Politics of Commemoration: Patronage of Monk-General Shrines in Late Chosŏn Korea,” was published in the Journal of Asian Studies in 2018. Professor Stiller’s research projects have received support from the ACLS/Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, the Korea Institute at Harvard University, and the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies at Seoul National University.