Educated on three continents, Chandreyi Basu considers art an avenue to conversations of culture. A native of Calcutta, India, the art and art history associate professor and Asian studies coordinator focuses her classes on the history of Asian art, specifically that of Southern Asia, from the ancient to medieval periods. Her teaching is especially valuable for students planning on St. Lawrence’s study programs in India and Thailand.

When studying cultures through art, Basu encourages her students to “think critically not just about the cultures they’re studying but also about themselves and their interaction with the cultures. It’s important to have an understanding of the culture, not just as an academic study,” she says, “but an understanding that we can relate to ourselves and the development of our own personalities, so we can think about ourselves as citizens of a global arena.”

Before coming to St. Lawrence in 2001, Basu had many inspiring professors in both India and America to whom she attributes her motivation for teaching. She feels that her multi-cultural educational experiences introduced her to different ways of knowing and learning. “That’s what inspired me to do the same thing for my students,” she says, “so that they’re prepared not just in terms of knowledge, but with life skills.”

As a scholar, Basu focuses her writing on early Buddhist art along with ancient Indian art in regions of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Author of Displaying Many Faces: Art and Gandharan Identity (2004), a catalog of a private collection of ancient Pakistani art, her current project is a bibliographic essay on iconography in the Hindu religion.                                                        

--Beth Spadaccini ’11