Zsuzsanna Gulácsi (born on 10 April 1966) is a Hungarian-born American historian, art historian of pan-Asiatic religions. She is a professor of art history, Asian studies, and comparative religious studies at

Northern Arizona University Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1899, it was the third and final university established in the Arizona Territory. It is one of the three universities gove ...

(NAU). Her teaching covers Early and

Eastern Christian Eastern Christianity comprises Christianity, Christian traditions and Christian denomination, church families that originally developed during Classical antiquity, classical and late antiquity in the Eastern Mediterranean region or locations fu ...

( Syriac and

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

) art,

Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across ...

, with special attention to the medium of the illuminated book; as well as late ancient and mediaeval

Buddhist art Buddhist art is visual art produced in the context of Buddhism. It includes Buddha in art, depictions of Gautama Buddha and other Buddhas and bodhisattvas in art, Buddhas and bodhisattvas, notable Buddhist figures both historical and mythical, ...

from

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

, Central, and

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

. She is a specialist of

Manichaean art Manichaeism has a rich tradition of visual art, starting with Mani (prophet), Mani himself writing Arzhang, the Book of Pictures. One of Mani's primary beliefs was that the arts (namely painting, calligraphy, and music) were of the same esteem as ...

, in addition, her research also focuses on the artistic heritage of other Silk Road religions such as

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and East Syriac Christianity, with special attention to

Manichaeism Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...

Career

Gulácsi went to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1990 in pursuit of a postgraduate education in Central Eurasian Studies and Art History and studied at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

. She received a double major

PhD degree A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1998. From 1999 to 2003, she taught history of

Central Asian art Central Asian art is visual art created in Central Asia, in areas corresponding to modern Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and parts of modern Mongolia, China and Russia. The art of ancient and medieval ...

Sophia University Sophia University (Japanese language, Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private List of Jesuit educational institutions, Jesuit research university in Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1913 by ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. Then she joined the faculty of the Department of Humanities, Arts, and Religion at NAU in 2003. She has also published a number of articles and books. She was awarded the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

for Humanities in 2016. In 2017, she was invited by Frantz Grenet as a guest lecturer at

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

Awards

* Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities * Ryskamp Research Fellows * American Philosophical Society, Franklin Research Grant * Northern Arizona University (3 Intramural Grants) * Japanese Cultural Ministry, "Young Scholar" Fellow (Japan) * Outstanding Teacher and Scholar, Indiana University

Selected publications

* ''Manichaean Art in Berlin Collections'', "Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum: Series Archaeologica et Iconographica" (). Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2001 * ''Mediaeval Manichaean Book Art: A Codicological Study of Iranian and Turkic Illuminated Book Fragments from 8th-11th Century East Central Asia'', "Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies" series (). Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2005 * ''Mani's Pictures: The Didactic Images of the Manichaeans from Sasanian Mesopotamia to Uygur Central Asia and Tang-Ming China'', "Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies" series (). Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gulacsi, Zsuzsanna 1966 births Living people Hungarian art historians Women art historians Historians of East Asian art Indiana University Bloomington alumni Northern Arizona University faculty Scholars of Manichaeism

Career

Awards

Selected publications

See also

References