Elizabeth Kindall's research focus is Chinese art, specifically Chinese painting from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Her current research focuses on farewell culture and landscape identity; and representations of the Yandang mountain range in Chinese painting.
Book
Geo-Narratives of a Filial Son: The Paintings of Huang Xiangjian (1609-1673), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2016. Finalist, Charles Rufus Morey Book Award, 2017.
Articles
"Experiential Readings and the Grand View: Mount Jizu by Huang Xiangjian (1609-1673)," The Art Bulletin (September 2012), no. 3: 412-436.
"Envisioning a Monastery: A Seventeenth-Century Buddhist Fund-Raising Appeal Album," T'oung Pao 97 (2011) 104-159.
"Visual Experience in Late-Ming Suzhou 'Honorific' and 'Famous Sites' Paintings," Ars Orientalis 36 (2009) 137-177.
"The Paintings of Huang Xiangjian's Filial Journey to the Southwest," Artibus Asiae 67 (2007), no. 2: 297-357.
Book Chapters
“Painting a Dual Biography.” In Representing Lives in China: Forms of Biography in the Ming-Qing Period 1368-1911. Edited by Ihor Pidhainy, Roger V. Des Forges, and Grace S. Fong. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2018, 161-195.
“Geo-Narrative in Seventeenth-Century China.” In The Itineraries of Art: Topographies of Artistic Mobility in Europe and Asia. Edited by Karin Gludovatz, Juliane Noth, and Joachim Rees. Berliner Schriften zur Kunst. Munich: Wilhelm Fink Publishers, 2015, 109-132.
“Geographies of Self in Seventeenth-Century Suzhou,” Geographies of Art History, The 4th Annual Art Historians of the Twin Cities Symposium, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, March 2, 2019
“Place Painting and Ming-dynasty Farewell Culture,” Midwest Conference on Asian Studies, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota, October 19, 2018
“The Yandang Range: Meditation, Healing, and Iconography,” Association of Asian Studies, Washington, D.C., March 25, 2018
“Landscape and Biography in a 17th Century Parting Painting,” “Return of Ten Thousand Dharmas: A Symposium in Honor of Patricia Berger,” University of California, Berkeley, May 6, 2017
“Painting Religious Experience in the Yandang Mountains,” 1st Annual Art Historians of the Twin Cities Symposium, April 2, 2016
“Painting the ‘Illusory Transformings’ of a Chinese Mountainscape,” College Art Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., February 4, 2016
“Place Paintings as Pictorial Biographies,” Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, October 3, 2014
"Huang Xiangjian (1609-1673): Painting a Dual Biography," Biography in East Asia, 1400-1900," Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, June 28-29, 2013
"Geo-Narrative in Seventeenth-Century China," DFG Research Group "Transcultural Negotiations in the Ambits of Art," International Conference "The Itineraries of Art." Topographies of Artistic Mobility in Europe and Asia, 1500-1900," Freie Universität Berlin, May 23-25, 2013
"A Geo-Narrative of Southwest China as Pictorial Biography" in the panel "Place, Praxis and Representation in Ming China," Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, San Diego, California, March 24, 2013
Discussant, "Place, Memory, and Visuality in Chinese Painting," Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada, March 16, 2012.
"Art Historical Field Notes: The Experience of 'The Site'." College Art Association Annual Meeting, New York City, February 10, 2011
"The Filial Son of Suzhou: Huang Xiangjian," Suzhou Museum, Suzhou China, June 20, 2009.
"The Filial Campaign of Huang Xiangjian," Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, St. Olaf College and Carleton College, October 11, 2008.
"Recreating the Pilgrimage Experience in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Painting: Circumambulating Mount Jizu," guest lecture, Missouri State University, April 20, 2007.
"Local Geography in a 1656 Painting of Mount Jizu," paper delivered at the International Symposium on Chinese Local History, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 5, 2004.
“Walking Meditation in a Painted Landscape Scroll,” Illustrated Manuscripts panel, UK Association for Buddhist Studies 2021, Edinburgh, Friday 2nd July 2021
“Transformative Rocks in a 14th-century Painting and Contemporary Chinese Geopark,” Art and its Geological Turns, College Art Association 2021, February 13, 2021
“Documenting Spiritual Geography,” Locality and Geographical Writings in Imperial China, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, July 1, 2020
“More than Just a Pretty View: How 17th Century Paintings of Suzhou Worked,” invited speaker, Annual Papp Chinese Painting Seminar, Phoenix Art Museum, April 24, 2019
“A Tale of Two Officials: Painting Persona in Ming China,” invited speaker, Annual Papp Chinese Painting Seminar, Phoenix Art Museum, April 25, 2019
“Jizi: Journey of the Spirit,” panel discussion moderator, Wiesman Art Museum, Oct. 11, 2017
“The Literati Painting Tradition,” guest speaker for Chinese art affinity group, Minneapolis Institute of Art, February 9, 2017
“Travel While Reclining: Topographical Painting in Late-Imperial China,” Confucius Institute, St. Cloud State University, Oct. 12, 2016
University Scholars Grant, University of St. Thomas, 2018-2021.
Finalist, Charles Rufus Morey Book Award, 2017.
James P. Geiss Foundation Publication Subvention Award, 2014.
Association for Asian Studies First Book Subvention Award, 2014.
CAA Millard Meiss Fund Subvention Award, 2014.
Research Grant, University of St. Thomas, 2011.
Graduate Research Team Grant, University of St. Thomas, 2011.
Junior Scholar Grant, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, 2010
Research Travel Grant, University of Utah Department of Art and Art History, 2005
Dissertation Research Grant, Asian Cultural Council, 2004
Dissertation Research Grant, Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies, Tokyo, 1999-2000
Louise Wallace Hackney Fellowship for the Study of Chinese Art, American Oriental Society, 1998-199