PDF icon Michael Meister CV

Michael W. Meister (BA, MA, PhD Harvard) is W. Norman Brown Professor of South Asia Studies. He is a specialist in the art of India and Pakistan. He has served as Chair of the Departments of South Asia Studies (SASt) and History of Art and as Director of Penn's South Asia Center. He is Curator of Indian Art, Asian section, University Museum, and Curator of the South Asia Art Archive. Research fellowships have included two Fulbright awards, a J. Paul Getty Trust Interpretive Research award, an NEH grant, American Institute of Indian Studies and American Institute of Pakistan Studies grants, and funding from University Research Foundations at Penn and Univ. Texas-Austin.

 

Research Interests

His research and writing focuses on temple architecture, the morphology of meaning, and other aspects of the art of the Indian sub-continent. Current projects include "Mountain Temples and Temple-Mountains" for the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and a monograph growing out of his long-term "Salt Range Temples" project.

Selected Publications

His research and writing focuses on temple architecture, the morphology of meaning, and other aspects of the art of the Indian sub-continent. Current projects include "Mountain Temples and Temple-Mountains" for the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and a monograph growing out of his long-term "Salt Range Temples" project.

Courses Taught

  • ARTH 009 Writing About Asian Art
  • ARTH 104/SARS 201; SARS501 Introduction to Art in South Asia
  • ARTH 212/SARS 213 Cities and Temples of Ancient India
  • ARTH 412/SARS 415 Indian Temple Architecture

Undergraduate Seminars:

  • ARTH 301 Art in Contemporary India
  • ARTH 301 The Icon as Art and for Worship
  • ARTH 301 Living Monuments: India

Proseminars:

  • ARTH 512/SARS 563; RELS 562 Ethnography and Art History (Center for the Advanced Study of India thematic seminar)
  • ARTH 512 /SARS 511 Readings in the History of Indian Art History
  • ARTH 512/SARS 511 Symbolic Architecture, The Indian Temple
  • ARTH 514 Workshop in Indian Architecture
  • ARTH 515/SAST 515 Social, Symbolic, and Formal Origins of the Indian Temple
  • ARTH 515 Workshop in Indian Architecture
  • ARTH 599 Research Seminar, South Asia Art Archive
  • ARTH 612/SARS 601 Indian Temple Architecture

Seminars:

  • ARTH 710 Regional Varieties of North Indian Architecture
  • ARTH 711/SARS 603 Creation of an Iconic Sculpture
  • ARTH 711/SARS 603 On the Edge - Kashmir and the Northwest
  • ARTH 711/SARS 603 Sculpture, South Asia

Affiliations