Carolyn Bell

Ph.D. Candidate in Japanese Art History
Carolyn Bell, a young woman with curly shoulder-length brown hair, wears a floral shirt and smiles at the camera.
cbell@g.harvard.edu

Carolyn Bell studies the history of ritual dress and bodily adornment in medieval Japan, focusing on the production and reception of East Asian textiles in relation to Buddhist visual and material culture. She received her BA in Asian Studies and History from Cornell University, where she wrote her senior thesis on textiles of the Japanese tea ceremony, including meibutsugire, sarasa, and kire-tekagami albums. Carolyn’s dissertation research centers on Buddhist monastic robes (kesa) among other case studies of ritual dress and bodily adornment during the Nanbokuchō Period, especially in the milieu of Emperor Go-Daigo and the Southern Court.