Cynthia Packert (formerly Atherton) Department of the History of Art and Architecture MCFA120 Middlebury College Middlebury, Vermont 05753 (802) 443-5232 e-mail: [email protected]

EDUCATION

Ph.D. 1988 Harvard University, Fine Arts M.A. 1983 Harvard University, Fine Arts B.A. 1978 University of Pittsburgh, Fine Arts and Religious Studies

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Middlebury College: Professor of Art History, 2000-2010; Christian A. Johnson Professor, 2010- present Associate Professor from 1995-2000 Assistant Professor from 1987–88, 1989–1995

Chair, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, 2006-present

South Asian Studies Program Director, 2006-2009

Elected member of the Faculty Reappointments Committee, 2006-09

Faculty Head of Wonnacott Commons, May 1995-2004

Director of Middlebury College East Asian Studies Program, 1995-97

Harvard University: Lecturer in Extension School, Spring 1989

Harvard University: Teaching Fellow (total of six semesters between 1980–86)

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

American Institute of Indian Studies, Short-Term Senior Fellowship (2011) for project “Crafting Change in Hindu Temples”

Whiting Foundation Fellowship for project, “In the Footsteps of the Prophet: The Power of Place in Islamic Art” (research travel summer 2011)

Recipient of funding from Mellon Foundation Faculty Career Development Program: Inter- Institutional Initiatives Grant to participate in the “Global Ganesh” exhibition planning research trip to (July-August 2010, Denison University) Packert/2

Recipient of funding from Mellon Foundation Faculty Career Development Program: Inter- Institutional Initiatives Grant to participate in the Mellon Faculty Development Workshop “Teaching the Tale of Genji in the 21st Century” (June 2010, Scripps College)

Recipient of funding from Mellon Foundation Faculty Career Development Program: Inter- Institutional Initiatives Grant to participate in the “South Asian Visual Culture and Expressions of Religious Identity, Social Construction, and Nation” workshop (July-August 2009, India and Denison University)

Recipient of funding from the Mellon foundation for Faculty Career Enhancement for project entitled “Cultural Crossroads and Magic Mountains: Southeast Asian Art in Context,” to support travel and research in Southeast Asia in the summer of 2007

Recipient of funding from the Mellon Faculty Career Development Program: Inter-Institutional Initiatives Grant to support research in Japan for the 2006 exhibition and conference on “Promoting and Resisting Westernization: Rethinking the Arts and Literatures of Meiji Japan, 1868-1912” (Scripps College and Denison University)

Recipient of Middlebury College Ada Howe Kent Research Fellowship, May-June 2005

Robert Wood Memorial Visiting Faculty Fellow, Associated Kyoto Program at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, Spring Semester 2005

Recipient of Middlebury College Ada Howe Kent Research Fellowship, April 2002

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers, academic year 1998–99

Recipient of Middlebury College Ada Howe Kent Research Fellowship, April 1997

Presidential Fellow to Salzburg Seminar Session #332: “Preserving the National Heritage,” Salzburg, Austria, December 1995

American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Fellowship (for dissertation research), 1984–85

BOOKS

The Art of Loving Krishna: Ornamentation and Devotion (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2010)

The Sculpture of Early Medieval . Leiden: E.J. Brill Publishers, 1997.

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ARTICLES

“Networks of Devotion: The Art and Practice of in Western India,” in : Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior, edited by Joan Cummins. (New Delhi: Mapin 2011): 45-57. “Bathing Beauties: Cooling Krishna and Radha, Igniting Devotional Desire,” in Performing Ecstasy: The Poetics and Politics of Religion in South Asia, edited by Pallabi Chakravorty and Scott Kugle. New Delhi, Manohar (2009).

“A Web of Deceit: The Virtual and the Visible in the Radhavallabha Temple, Vrindaban,” The Journal of Vaisnava Studies, Vol.13, no.2 (Spring 2005): 57-74.

“Divine Time all the Time: Temporal Aesthetics in the Worship of Krishna in Vrindaban, India.” in The Enduring Instant: Time and the Spectator in the Visual Arts, edited by Antoinette Roesler-Friedenthal and Johannes Nathan. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag (2003): 225-232.

“Time and Time Again: Notes from India,” New England Review, vol.21, no.4 (Fall 2000): 47-65.

Articles on western Indian sculpture (vol.15:449–450, 459–463, 484–491; site report on Hinglajgarh (vol.14:563). In The Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner. London: Macmillan Publishers, Ltd. and New York: Grove’s Dictionary, 1996.

“The Harshat-Mata Temple at Abaneri: Levels of Meaning.” Artibus Asiae 40 (1995): 201–36.

“Chamunda and Early Hindu Tantrism in Western India.” Orientations (1995): 61–66.

PUBLIC LECTURES

“Creation and Dissolution: Worshiping Ganesha and the Ephemerality of Art,” invited lecture for the Cornell Visual Culture Colloquium (November 2011)

“Bollywood Cinema and Mughal History: Creative Revisionism in Contemporary Indian Film,” for the Middlebury College Museum of Art (March 2010)

“Piety, Performance, and Politics: Repositioning India’s Ramayana Epic,” for Middlebury College Student Spring 2010 Symposium on “Deromanticizing India” (March 2010)

“The Art and Culture of the Ancient Khmer Kingdom,” Hermitage Foundation Auxiliary Lecture at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia (November, 2009)

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“How Do I Love Thee? Counting the Myriad Ways to Represent and Worship Images of the God Krishna,” for the Beloit College “Bringing Asian Arts and Material Culture into the Undergraduate Curriculum” Colloquium, Beloit (September 2009)

“From the Cradle to the Forest: Swings, Celebration, and Krishna,” invited talk for Center for South Asia Lecture Series, University of Wisconsin-Madison (September 2009)

“Whose Vision? Worshiping Krishna From Both Sides of the Altar,” Middlebury College History of Art and Architecture Symposium on “The Question of Collaboration” (March 2008)

“Time Out: A Month in the Life of Krishna,” invited public lecture for India Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington (March 2008)

“He’s a Real Swinger: The Art and Play of Enjoying Krishna,” invited public lecture for India Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington (October 2007)

“Whose Vision? Darshan From Both Sides of the Altar,” American Council for Southern Asian Art Symposium XIII , Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (March 2007)

“Swinging in the Rain: Celebrating Summer with Krishna,” invited public lecture for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (November 2006)

“A God in the City is Worth Two in the Hills,” Middlebury College History of Art and Architecture Symposium on “Art, Memory, and the Past” (March 2006)

“Material Boy: The Meaning and Significance of Ornamenting Krishna,” invited lecture for the Asian Studies Group at the Kyoto Center for Japanese Studies-Stanford Japan Center, (March 2005)

“Material Boy: The Meaning and Significance of Ornamenting Krishna,” invited lecture for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (September 2004)

“A Grammar of Ornament: Krishna’s Decorated Body,” invited lecture for the Octagon Center for the Arts at Iowa State University symposium on “Interpreting India: Multiple Views, Multiple Voices” (September 2004)

“Clothes Do Make the God: Decoding Costume at the Radhavallabha Temple in Vrindaban, India,” Middlebury College History of Art and Architecture Symposium on “Confronting Belief” (March 2003)

“Beyond Darshan: Belief, Ownership, and the Power of the Visual in the Worship of Krishna,” invited lecture at Cornell University’s South Asia Center (March 2002)

“Celebrating the Birth of Krishna at Govindadeva temple (Jaipur, Rajasthan), India: Traditions and Tensions,” Middlebury College Faculty Lecture Series (December 2001) Packert/5

“The Many Disguises of God: Decoding Costume Changes at the Radhavallabha Temple in Vrindaban,” American Council for Southern Asian Art Symposium X, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (November 2001)

“Janamashtami at Govindadeva Temple: Celebrating the Birth of Jaipur’s God- King,” for panel on “Lila in Context,” 30th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison Wisconsin (October 2001)

Participant on Roundtable on “Teaching Asian Art in Liberal Arts Colleges,” New England Association of Asian Studies Annual Conference, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts (October 2001)

“Thresholds,” Middlebury College Convocation Faculty Address 2001, Middlebury College (September 2001)

“Flowers, Full Moons and Festivals: Celebrating Krishna Though the Seasons in Vrindaban, India, “Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia (May 2001)

“Divine Time, All the Time: Temporal Aesthetics in the Worship of Krishna in Vrindaban, India,” for “Art History for the Millennium: Time,” the Thirtieth International Congress of the History of Art, London, England (September 2000)

“Three Weddings and a Love Boat: or What to Do With an Extra Month at the Radhavallabha Temple, Vrindaban,” American Council for Southern Asian Art Symposium 2000, Philadelphia Museum of Art (May 2000)

“Time’s Baby: What to Do With an Extra Month in the Hindu Calendar,” International Studies Faculty Colloquium, Middlebury College (April 2000)

“Dismantling the Empire: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Globalism in Indian Art,” for the Christian A. Johnson Symposium on “Looking Backward: The Visual Arts during the Twentieth Century,” Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Middlebury College (March 2000)

“Seeing with the Heart: Ornamenting Krishna in Vrindaban, India,” The Distinguished Alumni Lecture, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh (March 1999)

“Hinduism and the Arts,” Scott Symposium, Middlebury College (January 1998)

“From Stuart Street to the Orient: Henry Wilson's Bronze Doors for the Salada Tea Building, Boston.” Abernethy Lecture Series, Middlebury College (November 1997)

“Art and the Empire: the Role of the ,” The Second Annual Nicholas R. Clifford Symposium, Middlebury College (September 1994)

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“Two Scenes from the Life of Buddha,” Middlebury College Museum of Art (November 1993)

“Feeding the Jackals: Tantric Ritual and Hindu Art,” Abernethy Lecture Series, Middlebury College (November 1991)

“Sculptures from Hinglajgarh: Regional Continuity in Western Malwa,” American Committee for South Asian Art Symposium, Sackler Museum, Washington, D.C. (April 1991)

TEACHING Monuments and Ideas in Asian Art Krishna and the Art of Devotion Bollywood and Beyond Approaches to Islamic Art Indian Painting Islamic Art in India Mughal Art and Architecture Seminar Sacred Japan Journey of the Three Jewels: Buddhist Art Tibet and The West Art, Change, and the Global Environment Methods and Theories in the History of Art

LANGUAGES

Hindi: intermediate (summer-language and College-Year-in-India program, University of Wisconsin-Madison and use in research)

French: conversational

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

American Council for Southern Asian Art (Treasurer, 2000-09) American Institute of Indian Studies, Executive Board member (2007-09) Association for Asian Studies College Art Association Rajasthan Studies Group