Eiren Shea

Eiren Shea is Assistant Professor of Art History at Grinnell College (Iowa, USA), where she offers classes on arts of pre-modern Asia. She completed her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) in 2016. Her dissertation, “Fashioning Mongol Identity in China (c. 1200-1368)” investigates Mongol court dress and cultural exchange between China and Persia. While completing her Ph.D., Shea was a fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) in Washington, D.C. from 2014-2016. Her principle fields of research include arts of the Mongol period, the Silk Road, China, Central Asia, and Persia, with a special focus on textiles. She is also interested in East-West cultural exchange more broadly.