![Yoon Ah (Yoonah) Hwang Faculty Profile](/academics/faculty/images/yoonah-hwang.jpg)
Yoon Ah (Yoonah) Hwang
Biography
Yoon Ah (Yoonah) Hwang is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Seaver College. Prior to joining Pepperdine, she served as a Postdoctoral Scholar-Teaching Fellow in the Department of Art History at the University of Southern California from 2021 to 2024. She earned her Ph.D. from USC in 2021, after completing M.A. degrees in Art History from both Seoul National University and USC, and a B.A. in Korean History from Yonsei University. Her research specializes in Buddhist art and material culture in medieval China, exploring the intricate connections between textile production, rituals, materiality, and artistic practice and exchange from a global perspective. In her dissertation, “Projecting Wishes on Flying Banners: Materiality and Painted Banners from Cave 17 in Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries,” she examines the artistic labor, material qualities, and religious functions of painted banners from the Library Cave. Her recent publication, "Materialized Wishes: Long Banners from the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang" in Religions (2023), further delves into these themes. Currently, she is developing a book manuscript tentatively titled Sacred Painted Surface: Material Cultures of Painted Banners of Dunhuang. In addition, she has gained professional experience at museums worldwide, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Museum of Korea in Seoul.
Education
- Ph.D. in Art History, University of Southern California
- M.A. in Art History, University of Southern California
- M.A. in Art History, Seoul National University
- B.A. in History, Yonsei University
Topics
- Material Culture of the Silk Roads
- Buddhist Art in Asia
- Textiles
- Artistic Practice
- Cultural Interactions
Courses
- ARTH 200: World Art I