More than 100 staff members work in the Division of the Humanities. We'll introduce you to our staff in this continuing series.

Katherine Tsiang
Associate Director, Center for the Art of East Asia
Department of Art History

What do you like most about your job?
I've been at this job since 1996 after completing my PhD here. But it's still interesting, as the work hasn't stayed the same. I enjoy doing research, and I began the job as supervisor of research materials for East Asian Art. From there, the job and I have both grown. Professor Wu Hung established the Center for the Art of East Asia in 2003 in the Department of Art History, and I became its Associate Director. Our projects have included symposiums and publications, websites, and exhibitions. We've been working with Humanities Computing on creating websites with interactive digital imaging for teaching and research on East Asian handscroll paintings and Chinese Buddhist cave temples. In 2004, we started using scanners to create 3D models of Buddhist sculptures in museums around the world. This past year, we received funding from the Cyrus Tang Foundation for new international collaborative initiative building on what we've done in the past and have hired three new staff members. Though international travel has been curtailed, and we've working from home all these months, there's hardly been a dull moment.

What was the last good book you read?
I've not been doing much reading this past year outside of articles for research, and following the news rather obsessively, but I've made it most of the way through Pankaj Mishra's From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia. It's a history of the last two centuries from a non-Western point of view and essential reading for all who have any interest in how the world came to be as it is today. My next book to read is something less serious though it doesn't sound like a laughing matter, Haruki Murakami's Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

You might work with me if ...
… you need information about Center for the Art of East Asia's digital collections and websites.

What are you most looking forward to this spring?
I want to get back to the office to retrieve data, and expand and reconfigure our office spaces.