Rate My Professor Catherine Becker

Catherine Becker serves as Associate Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art and Architecture and Chair of the Department of Art History at the University of Illinois Chicago, contributing to the Arts and Culture faculty. She holds an affiliated position in the Global Asian Studies Program. Her academic journey includes a Ph.D. and M.A. in History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley, complemented by a B.A. in Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Becker's research interests encompass visual storytelling techniques employed in the Buddhist art of South and Southeast Asia, alongside contemporary artists' reinterpretations of historical legacies. She explores how vestiges of the past—in the form of tangible monuments, artifacts, images, and intangible traditions—are harnessed to advance modern ideological agendas.

Her seminal work, Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past: Sculpture from the Buddhist Stupas of Andhra Pradesh (Oxford University Press, 2015), delves into the evolution of sculptural practices at these stupas from the first century of the Common Era through to contemporary times. This study elucidates the pivotal roles played by sculpture, narrative structures, and visual culture in the formation of sacred environments, the cultivation of devotee communities, the negotiation between historical epochs, and the articulation of pan-Buddhist identities transcending national boundaries. In her recent scholarship, Becker has traced the artistic interconnections between Buddhist societies in South India and Sri Lanka during the nascent centuries of the Common Era, with particular emphasis on their mutual narrative methodologies. Presently, she is engaged in a second book project that scrutinizes India's renowned sound-and-light shows illuminating diverse historical monuments. These spectacles range from rudimentary productions featuring twinkling illuminations and amplified narrations to sophisticated iterations utilizing vibrant, psychedelic video projection mapping technologies, all of which profoundly shape perceptions of India's cultural patrimony. Additionally, Becker served as a 2005-2006 Fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago's Institute for the Humanities and has delivered invited lectures, including at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Her publications include the article “The Buddhavanam Replica Stupa in Telangana,” which appeared in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East in 2023.