What: This course will examine two threads of cross-cultural phenomena in East Asia: Tea and Buddhism. By looking at transnational cultural, religious, economic, artistic, environmental, and historic connections through these lenses, students will gain an understanding of Taiwan and Japan across time and place. The program includes site visits to museums, temples, tea plantations, and tea houses, considering how these two long-standing cultural phenomena have evolved over time and in different locations, adapting to political, environmental, and social forces.
Dr. Alison Miller
A specialist of modern Japanese visual culture, Dr. Alison J. Miller lived in Japan for over three years, and has traveled extensively throughout East Asia. She has over a decade of teaching experience, including leading numerous museum and research field trips, and is looking forward to further exploring the temples of Kyoto with students this summer, as well as sampling the many delicacies found at the food markets of Taipei. Dr. Miller’s research has been supported by Fulbright and Mellon funding, and she has published widely on Japanese art history in venues such as the Journal of Japanese Studies and Trans Asia Photography. She is co-editor and contributing author for The Visual Culture of Meiji Japan: Negotiating the Transition to Modernity (Routledge, 2021), and Transposed Memory: Visual Sites of National Recollection in 20th and 21st century East Asia (Brill, 2024). She is currently finalizing her book manuscript, Envisioning the Empress: The Lives and Images of Japanese Imperial Women, 1868-1952 (expected 2024). You can find more information at her website: https://www.alisonjmiller.com/.
