University of Pittsburgh

Graduate Students

Sheri Lullo

East Asian Art and Archaeology

shl31@pitt.edu

PhD Research: “Constructing Beauty in Life and Death during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) in China”

Of objects excavated from tombs in early China, none had a more intimate connection to the physical body than cosmetics and items of adornment.  Lullo's dissertation will look at how material culture can be linked to the body through active constructions of beauty.  Received texts can be analyzed for information of how beauty was defined and utilized in life, but the implements of beauty, in the form of object assemblages in tombs, along with mural paintings and tomb figurines, help to reconstruct how beauty was redefined for death.  By approaching beauty as performance, Lullo is interested in how these forms of mortuary art may have played a role in ideologies of the afterlife, as well as their relation to the body during the funerary ritual and in the construction of social memory.

Publications

“Female Divinities in Han Dynasty Representation” (Gender and Chinese Archaeology), edited by Katheryn M. Linduff and Yan Sun, Aurora Center for the Study of Ancient Civilizations (Beijing University, Beijing: Kexue Press, 2006). (in Chinese)

“Regional Iconographies of the Queen Mother of the West,” Recarving China’s Past: The Arts, Archaeology, and Architecture of the Wu Family Shrines by Cary Y. Liu, et al. (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum: New Haven:Yale University Press, 2005), pp. 103-

“Glass in Early China: A Substitute for Luxury?” SinoPlatonic Papers, No. 142 (July 2004), pp. 17-26.

“Female Divinities in Han Dynasty Representation,” Gender and Chinese Archaeology, edited by Katheryn M. Linduff and Yan Sun (Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press, 2004), pp. 259-87.

Presentations

“Beauty in Death: Toiletry Cases and Immortality in Han Dynasty (206
BCE-220 CE) China.” Eighth Annual Arts & Sciences Grad Expo, University of
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, March 2008.

“Beauty in Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) China and Ancient Cultures of the
West: A Comparative Analysis.” Archaeological Institute of America (AIA)
Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, January 2008.

“The Sinification of the Queen Mother of the West in Han Dynasty China (206 BCE-220 CE).”  Show & Tell: Relationships Between Text, Narrative & Image, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK, September 2005.

“Glass in Early China: A Substitute for Luxury?”  Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Meeting.  San Diego, CA, March 2004.

“From Demon to Human: Depictions of the Queen Mother of the West during China’s Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE).” Midwest Art History Society, Pittsburgh, PA, April 2003.

“The Role of the Visual in Funerary Ritual: The Tomb of Lady Dai (ca. 168 BCE) at Mawangdui, Southcentral China.” Defining Ritual. University of Arizona Art History Graduate Student Associations Annual Symposium.  Tucson, AZ, January 2002.

Fellowships, Awards

John H. Tsui Memorial Award (Nationality Rooms Scholarship), 2008

China Times Cultural Foundation Young Scholar Award, 2007-2008

Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship for the Humanities, 2005-2006

Friends of Frick Fine Arts Travel Grant for China, University of Pittsburgh, Summer 2003

Center for International Studies (UCIS) Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, 2003-2004

Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) for Chinese Language, Asian Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh, 2002-2003

Chancellor’s Fellowship in Chinese Studies, Asian Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh, 2001-2002

U.S. Fulbright Fellowship, Hong Kong, 2000-2001

Teaching Experience

Introduction to the Art of Asia (Summer 2005 and Spring 2007)

Introduction to Art (Summer 2007)

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