Catherine Raymond, Ph.D.
| Title: | Professor, Art History |
| Division: | School of Art and Design |
| Office Location: | Art Building, Room 201A |
| Office Phone: | 815-753-0512 |
| Office Fax: | 815-753-7701 |
| Email: | craymond@niu.edu |
Educational Background
- Ph.D., La Sorbonne (Université de Paris III)
Background
Catherine Raymond holds a Ph. D. in Art and Archaeology and in Indian and Southeast Asian studies from La Sorbonne (Université de Paris III). She was trained in France under Professors Jean Boisselier (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam); Madeleine Giteau (Cambodia and Laos); and Denise Bernot (Burma/Myanmar). She also received her DREA (equivalent to an M.A.) in Burmese Languages and Civilizations at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales.
Her research has largely focused on the iconography of Theravada Buddhism. Her special interest is the arts of Burma/Myanmar as more broadly interactive with South and Southeast Asian civilization. She has been funded by the French Foreign Ministry and the Colombo Plan and has conducted field work in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam and most recently Laos, where she is Team Leader of an ongoing, five-year project —the Inventory of Lao Buddhist Iconography (PIIL)— in cooperation with the Department of Museums and Archaeology, within the Lao PDR Ministry of Information and Culture. In association with the Digital Conservation Facility Laos, PIIL was awarded a 2004-05 Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation grant from the US State Department for ongoing research in the royal monastery of Vat Sisaket in Vientiane, and for training a new generation of conservators of Lao Buddhist mural paintings.
Since her appointment as Director of the Center for Burma Studies at Northern Illinois University, she has resumed her research in the former Buddhist kingdom of Arakan (presently Union of Myanmar's Rakhine State). She also curates the extensive Burma collection at the NIU Art Museum, where she is presently developing new digital approaches to teaching Burmese art at all levels and towards lending a much wider familiarization with this unique resource, both on- and off-campus.
April 20, 2017 Dr. Raymond was awarded the 2017 Presidential Engagement Professor award.
