In a lecture titled “Early Indian Textile Trade to West Asia and its Indonesian Afterlife", John Guy, Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, explored India's historical trade in cotton goods to Indian Ocean markets reaching from the Red Sea and to Southeast Asia and beyond.

Join us for a guided tour of our current exhibition, Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam Through Time & Place by two Emory faculty members.

In a wide-ranging and richly illustrated lecture titled "Wondrous Worlds Connected: Life at Sea in the Islamic World," Elizabeth Lambourn, Professor of Material Histories and Deputy Director of the Institute of Art and Design at De Montfort University, discussed the importance of maritime spaces in the Islamic world's interactions with India and China, and presented new insights from her research into the daily lives of sailors and passengers on ships in the Indian Ocean.

This panel discusses the significance of the court’s ruling in relation to Freedmen activists and community members seeking restoration of their tribal citizenship.

In a lecture titled “Many Shades of Blue: The Animal Avatars of Vishnu,” Dr. Joan Cummins, Lisa and Bernard Selz Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Brooklyn Museum, recounts the stories of these animal avatars, looking at the many beautiful and charming ways that poets and artists have depicted the distinct personalities of these divine beasts.

In a colorfully illustrated lecture titled “Vishnu’s Divine Descents: Saving the World one Avatar at a Time” Cynthia Packert, Christian A. Johnson Professor in the History of Art and Architecture at Middlebury College, discusses the myths, meanings, and various artistic manifestations of Vishnu’s avataras, with a focus on his multiple human guises.

In a lecture titled "Reflections of the Past in Modern Islamic Gardens," D. Fairchild Ruggles, Debra Mitchell Chair in Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, discusses ways in which that historic tradition is ongoing as modern interpretations use the same array of elements, sometimes quoting past gardens, sometimes reinvesting the forms with new meaning.

In a talk titled 'Lovers in a Dangerous Time': Narratives and Paintings of Layla and Majnun, Dr. Farouk Mitha of the University of Victoria, Canada and the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), situates and then transposes the continuing fascination with this love story, reflecting on ways it holds up a mirror in Muslim contexts, as well as for our current vulnerable and global moment.