Visual Arts & Design

Lisa N. Owen received her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently an Associate Professor at UNT. While her teaching embraces all aspects of South Asian art, Dr. Owen's research focuses on ancient and medieval rock-cut monuments in India. She is particularly interested in the ways that sacred space is articulated in this medium and how carved imagery and space shape devotional practices. Her interests also include the production of imagery in ancient India, patterns of patronage, and constructions of identity. Her current book project, Rocks, Caves, and Divinity: Creating Places of Worship in Medieval Southern India, questions the saliency of employing traditional art historical categories such as "architecture" and "sculpture" to India's rock-cut monuments that clearly express a power of place through more complex visual systems. Dr. Owen's fieldwork in India has been supported by an American Institute of Indian Studies Senior Short-Term Fellowship, a Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar Award, and a Howard Foundation Fellowship. She has presented her work at numerous venues, including the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the India International Centre, Oxford University, the University of London, Yale University, and the University of Toronto. Her publications include Carving Devotion in the Jain Caves at Ellora (Brill, 2012) and essays in Marg, Artibus Asiae, the International Journal of Jaina Studies, and the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies.