Maya Stiller

Maya Stiller is an Associate Professor of Korean Art History and Visual Culture as well as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Art History Department at the University of Kansas. She earned her Dr. phil. in East Asian Art History from Freie Universität Berlin in 2008 and a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from UCLA in 2014. Her first book, Carving Status at Kŭmgangsan: Elite Graffiti in Premodern Korea, won the 2021 Patricia Buckley Ebrey Prize from the American Historical Association and a honorable mention from the Association for Asian Studies’ James Palais Prize. Recent articles have been published in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Artibus Asiae, Cahiers d’Extreme-Asie, Journal of Asian Studies, and Journal of Korean Religions. Professor Stiller is currently working on a book about Buddhist temple architecture in Korea. She is particularly interested in transcultural artisanal practices and patronage networks, the economic frameworks that underpin artistic production, and eco-critical questions related to the materiality and environmental contexts of Korean art.

Professor Stiller offers a wide range of courses that encourage students to engage with both modern/contemporary art as well as pre-modern Korean visual and material culture. Her classes are designed to integrate critical theory with hands-on research and embodied experiences, engaging students with Korean artifacts found in local museums and archives, and training them in both traditional research methods and cutting-edge digital approaches. As an affiliated faculty member in the Center for East Asian Studies, Professor Stiller’s work also contributes to the East Asian Languages and Cultures programs at KU.

Prospective Graduate Students: Professor Stiller invites applications from students interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in Korean art history. Students will have the rare opportunity to work on projects that bridge the ancient and modern, from ancient Buddhist art and architecture and Chosŏn visual culture to the complexities of modern painting in North and South Korea and contemporary performance art, offering students the opportunity to become experts in both premodern and modern Korean art. Professor Stiller is especially interested in students who are eager to engage in transhistorical and transnational research, blending traditional research approaches with innovative methodologies of the so-called “Digital Humanities.”