Catherine Raymond Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Art History Director, Center for Burma Studies craymond@niu.edu

Prof. Raymond first studied Burmese at l’Institut Nationale des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INaLCO) in Paris, and on completing her first degree, was awarded a year-long scholarship (1983-84) at Yangon University to deepen her language skills and which led to her Diplome de Recherches d’Etudes Approfondies (equivalent to our M.A.) in Burmese at INaLCO. While there, she also began her preparation for a doctorate in South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology at La Sorbonne (University of Paris III). She elaborated her Sorbonne dissertation on Burmese Buddhist iconography under the late, great art historians Jean Boisselier and Madeleine Giteau (whose work at Ho Phrakeo Museum on Buddhist iconography in Vientiane still forms the basis of Prof. Raymond’s current research there); and also linguist Denise Bernot, founder of the Faculty of Burmese Studies at INaLCO, and its first Chair.

After receiving the doctorate, Prof. Raymond taught Burmese Art and Archaeology at INaLCO, followed by three years as a “membre” of L’Ecole Française d’Extreme-Orient (EFEO), during which she conducted in 1991-92 the first post-war field survey of the status of archaeological research and of site conservation across the Mekong Delta.

Largely based in Vientiane, Laos from 1998 and 2002 she worked closely with the Department of Museums and Archaeology within the Lao PDR Ministry of Information and Culture, for which she organized major training workshops for the Lao National Museum and also initiated the ongoing comprehensive inventory of iconographic resources within the Vientiane Capital region, some large part of which was contained within existing museums collections.

Buddhist iconography throughout mainland Southeast Asia but primarily in Burma and Laos continues as the focus of Dr. Raymond’s research. She is also increasingly committed to museological projects in both Burma and Laos: since 2002, her groundbreaking work at Vat Sisaket (where she identified the long-lost textual sources for the intricate and fast-deteriorating wall paintings) and at the Ho Phra Keo museum has been consistently supported by grants from l’Ambassade de France and by the US State Department’s Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation. Now also in the pipeline is a project at the Mandalay Historical Museum —for which Prof. Raymond has agreed to be Team Leader— under UNESCO’s new “museum-to-museum partnership program”.

As Curator of the Center for Burma Studies’ extensive collections, Prof. Raymond has mounted three important shows just since 2004: the first was the maiden exhibition at the reopened NIU Museum; the second —co-curated with Dr. Alexandra Green from Denison U., in Ohio (which also lent several major pieces)— was at the former NIU Gallery in Chicago; and at present, another show at Altgeld NIU Museum presents the first reconstruction in North America of a functional altar for the popular Buddhist Burmese “Ritual of the 37 Nats”. She also has expanded upon Prof. (Emeritus) Richard Cooler’s excellent utilization of the Burmese Collections here as a key teaching tool for Southeast Asian Art History, not least through the Center’s online Virtual Gallery, which was originally developed under a 2003 grant from the Carpenter Foundation.

See <www.grad.niu.edu/burma> and also <http://www.seasite.niu.edu/burmese/cooler/BurmaArt_TOC.htm>

Of course she is also an active contributor to NIU’s Museum Certificate Studies Program.
 

Her teaching responsibilities ordinarily include: 

ARTH 294, a survey on Asian Art focusing on Asian Buddhism and Southeast Asia particularly.

ARTH 378 Indian and Southeast Asian Art (undergraduate level)

ARTH 487 Southeast Asian Art (graduate level)

ARTH 598 Indian and Southeast Asian Art (graduate level)

ARTH 601 Graduate seminar on Southeast Asian Art : specific topic

Each semester she is also one of the co-instructors for ILAS 225: a course for undergraduates with a minor in Southeast Asian Studies, where she provides an introductory survey of Southeast Asian art and archaeology. Every second year she contributes to the History of Burma course offered in the History Department.

She is an advisor to the Burma Interest Group, a student association here at NIU; and since 2004, Dr. Raymond has provided the opportunity to graduate students to travel abroad with her to Burma and Laos: both to participate in her continuing research at Burmese, Thai and Lao Museums and for collecting new or obscure material relevant to their own theses.