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Miriam Chusid specializes in Japanese art and visual culture with a focus on East Asian Buddhist art and the role of women in the production and reception of religious images. Her research investigates visual narratives and narrative theory while addressing the conservation of art within historical inquiry. Chusid's current book project, entitled 'Ill-Fated Afterlife: Painting Buddhist Cosmos in Premodern Japan', explores the emergence of thirteenth-century images of Buddhist hell used in rituals benefitting the dead. It intertwines several lines of inquiry, including the investigation of iconography, themes, patrons, and painters who incorporated images of hell, as well as the strategies of display and the practices related to the maintenance and repair of these paintings. Through her work, she uncovers the visual, ritual, and material matrix behind depictions of infernal realms, demonstrating how the producers of these objects addressed a range of postmortem concerns and expectations of increasingly diverse Buddhist communities. Chusid joined the University of Washington in 2021 after holding postdoctoral fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Burke Center for Japanese Art at Columbia University, as well as serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Haverford College.
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