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Brown Bag Biography with Kate A. Lingley

The Center for Biographical Research presents: Thursday, September 18: Kate A. Lingley, “Women in the Public Sphere: Patronage as Autobiography in Medieval China” Kate A. Lingley, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, University of ��ɫ������վʻi at ����ԴDz� Cosponsored by Hamilton Library Location: Kuykendall 410 Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST Short Description: The patrons of early medieval Chinese Buddhism commissioned thousands of votive images and monuments, many including inscriptions justifying their gift and even donor figures depicting them in the act of offering worship. In doing so, they also provided a material record of the lives of individuals who were of no interest to official history. The medieval Chinese historical record is voluminous and richly detailed, but one of its greatest absences is the accounts of women, who appear only occasionally and usually as adjuncts to a male relative’s story. By contrast, there was no notional restriction on who could be a Buddhist art patron at the time, so long as they could muster the resources to sponsor an image or monument. Such monuments were usually installed in public view in monasteries, temples, and other public places. The view they provide into the lives and activities of their patrons is invaluable, specifically because of this public nature; the donor figures and inscriptions constitute a form of public self-representation on the part of their patrons, and thus are fundamentally autobiographical. My work focuses on the lives of medieval women as seen through the monuments and inscriptions they left behind.

Event Sponsor
Center for Biographical Research, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Laura M. Dunn, 808-956-3774, biograph@hawaii.edu