Dorothy C. Wong

Professor, Art History

Personal Website
Curriculum Vitae

Office hours:  Tuesday 2:00–3:00pm, Wednesday 3:00–4:00 pm, or by appointment Fayerweather 209

Open Scholar >

Specializing in Buddhist art of medieval China, Dorothy Wong’s research addresses topics of art in relation to religion and society, and of the relationship between religious texts/doctrine and visual representations. In addition to many articles, she has published Chinese Steles: Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form (2004; Chinese edition 2011), Hōryūji Reconsidered (editor and contributing author, 2008) China and Beyond in the Medieaval Period: Cultural Crossings and Inter-regional Connections (co-editor with Gustav Heldt, and contributing author, 2014), Buddhist Pilgrim-Monks as Agents of Cultural and Artistic Transmission: The International Buddhist Art Style in East Asia, ca. 645–770 (2018; Chinese edition forthcoming), and Miraculous Images in Asian Traditions, vol. 50 of Ars Orientalis (editor and contributing author, 2020). She just completed editing a volume entitled Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation: Perspectives on East Asian Buddhist Art (forthcoming). Currently she is working together with about two dozen international scholars researching the topic of “miraculous images” in global perspectives, trying to understand what “miracles” mean in different cultures and how and when people ascribe material objects with spiritual agency. 

Together with Tayyab Safdar, she is Co-PI of the “Assessment of China’s Belt and Road Initiative” at the University of Virginia and is a member of the “Antecedents of BRI” working group.