Holly Edwards

Photo of Holly Edwards

Senior Lecturer in Art

413-597-4562
Lawrence Hall Rm 206

Education

B.A. Princeton University (1975)
M.A. University of Michigan (1981)
Ph.D. New York University Institute of Fine Arts, History of Islamic Art (1990)

Areas of Expertise

I am, by training, an historian of Islamic art. That means that I am a generalist in the classroom, teaching courses that range from painting to architecture and from Spain to India. More specifically, I am interested in the cracks between cultures and the genesis of new traditions.  These two themes underlie seemingly diverse projects:  a survey of tomb architecture in the Indus Valley, a consideration of portraiture and iconoclasm, and work on cross-cultural perception and representation.  Recently, my work has taken the form of museum exhibitions:  Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures: American Orientalism 1870-1930 (Princeton University Press, 2000) at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown; Through Afghan Eyes at the Asia Society in New York (co-curator));  Beautiful Suffering: Photography and the Traffic in Pain,  co-curator, (University of Chicago Press, 2007) at the Williams College Museum of Art.

Courses

ARTH 220 LEC

Sacred Spaces of Islam (not offered 2023/24)

ARTH 278 / ARAB 278 LEC

The Golden Road to Samarqand (not offered 2023/24)

ARTH 470 SEM

Image-making, Orientalism and Visual Culture (not offered 2023/24)