Lia Wei
Maître de conférences
Lia Wei is maître de conférences in Chinese art history at the Department of Chinese Studies, Inalco, Paris. She was previously based at the Department of Archaeology and Museum Studies in Renmin University of China (2018-2021), where she conducted research and teaching on the archaeology of culture contact and the intersection between intangible and material cultural heritage, as well as contributing to several research-oriented, educational or curatorial collaborations between Renmin University and European partners (Université de Genève, Ghent University). Dr. Wei has been conducting research in China since 2009, with a focus on medieval Buddhist epigraphy and cave temples in Northeast China (Shandong, Hebei, Henan provinces) as well as funerary landscapes in Southwest China (Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hubei and Hunan provinces). She received her PhD with a thesis entitled ‘Highland Routes and Frontier Communities at the Fall of the Han Empire (2nd to 3rd century CE): A Comparative Study of Cave Burials South of the Yangzi River’ at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. In parallel to her work as an art historian and archaeologist, she engages in practice-based research or creative practices and designs projects that combine academic and artistic research. She was trained in calligraphy, sigillography and landscape painting at the China Academy of Art (Hangzhou 2007) and Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (Chongqing 2008), and recently coordinated a series of events combining conferences and exhibitions in the field of ink painting, literati art and antiquarianism, in particular rubbing techniques (Ink Art Week in Venice 2018, Lithic Impressions Venice 2018, Ink Brussels 2019).
