Curriculum Vitae
Education
1978-1985 Harvard University Ph.d.
1981-1982 Tokyo University.
Doctorate in Fine Arts with a concentration in the Buddhist art of East Asia. Dissertation: The Formation of the Plain-wood Style and the Development of Japanese Buddhist Sculpture: 760-840.
1973-1978 Harvard College A.B., Summa cum laude
1975-1976 Kyoto Municipal University of Arts
Concentration: East Asian Languages and Civilizations.
Teaching
Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Amherst College. 1995-present.
Visiting Professor, Department of the History of Art, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale University. Spring 2001.
Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Amherst College. 1989-1995.
Chairman, Department of Fine Arts, Amherst College. 1989-1990; 1997–1999.
Visiting Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Sotheby's Educational Studies. 1990-1994.
Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Amherst College. 1983-1989.
Assistant Professor, Harvard Summer School. Summer 1986, 1987.
Exhibitions
Smith College Museum of Art, Northamtpon, Massachusetts Guest curator and author of catalogue for exhibition, “Confronting Tradition–Contemporary Art in Kyoto.” September–December 2004.
The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts. Guest curator and editor of catalogue for exhibition, “Shaped with Passion--The Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Collection of Modern Japanese Ceramics.” August-October, 1998.
Katonah Art Museum, Katonah, New York. Guest curator and editor of catalogue (with Anne Nishimura Morse) for exhibition: “Object as Insight: Japanese Buddhist Art and Ritual.” Katonah Museum of Art, January-March 1996, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, April-June 1996.
Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts. Guest curator (with Anne Nishimura Morse) for traveling exhibition “Bridge of Fire: Two Potters East and West” January 1992.
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center. Guest Curator (with Anne Nishimura Morse) for traveling exhibition, "Japanese Crafts—New England.” Summer 1987.
Professional Experience
Editor, A History of Japanese Art. University of Hawai’i Press.
Screener, Fellowship Program, American Council of Learned Societies. 2000–present.
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA. Consulting Curator for Asian Art. 1999-present.
The Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art at the Clark Center, Hanford, CA.. Chair, Board of Directors. 1995-2003.
Association of Asian Studies, 2002 Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. Respondent for panel “Import/Export–Art/History–Japan/West.”
New England Conference of the Association of Asian Studies, 2001 Annual Meeting, Williamstown, MA. Roundtable panelist, “Teaching Asian Art in Liberal Arts Colleges.”
Association of Asian Studies, 1998 Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. Respondent for panel, “Every Body Hurts.”
Society for International Exchange of Art Historical Studies, Kyoto. Discussant for session “Perspectives on Asian Art Historical Studies.” October, 1997.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. Instructor for lecture series “Encounters with the Transcendent: Japanese Buddhist Art and Ritual.” Spring, 1996
Japan Society Gallery, New York. Member, Art Advisory Board. 1992-1995.
Association of Asian Studies, 1992 Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. Respondent for panel, “Cultural Looting.”
Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA. Research Director for project to study their Japanese collections. 1989-1994.
New England Conference of the Association of Asian Studies, 1990 Annual Meeting, Cambridge, MA. Discussant for panel “Religious Architecture in Asia.”
College Art Association, 1989 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, Co chair for panel, “Japanese Art and Culture in Transition: Personality and Patronage in the 12th and 13th Centuries.”
Art Institute of Chicago. August, 1986. Translation and presentation of paper for Prof. Nishikawa Shinji, Keio University, Emeritus, at the Buddhism and Japanese Culture symposium.
Japan Society, New York. October, 1976. Translation and presentation of papers by two Japanese scholars at the Shinto Arts symposium.
Selected Academic Honors and Awards
Senior Sabbatical Fellowship. Amherst College, Spring 2002.
Numata Foundation Fellowship. Ryūkoku University, Kyoto Japan 1996-7.
Five College Center for East Asian Studies. Course Development Grant for a Survey of Korean Art, 1994, 1995.
Amherst College Research Award, 1988-89; 1994-5. American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, 1990-91.
Visiting Researcher. Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, 1989.
Howard Foundation Fellowship, 1986-87
Amherst Trustee Faculty Fellowship, 1986-87 Japan Foundation.
Dissertation Research Fellowship, 1981-82.
Phi beta kappa, Harvard University, 1978.
Department of Fine Arts
Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations
108 Fayerweather Hall — Amherst College — Amherst, MA
(413) 542.2282 — scmorse@amherst.edu