Clara Ma

PhD Candidate


Clara Ma is a Ph.D candidate studying Buddhist art of Tang-Song China. Clara received her B.A. magna cum laude from St. Lawrence University in 2013. After graduation, She worked as a curatorial intern in the Cleveland Museum of Art's Chinese Art Department. In 2015, Clara received her M.A. with distinction from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Clara’s dissertation examines the making and reception of portraits of Buddhist divine monks in China, and their circulation in Korea and Japan from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries. In 2021, Clara received Asian Cultural Council Individual Fellowship and Dumas Malone Graduate Research Fellowship to complete her fieldwork. She is currently a Barringer-Lindner Curatorial fellow and developing a Buddhist art exhibition for the Fralin Museum of Art.