Asymmetry and NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts establish a new initiative to advance the study of Chinese diasporic art
NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, James B. Duke House, N.L. Roberts. Courtesy of the IFA
Asymmetry and the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University (IFA) announce a new partnership dedicated to advancing scholarship on Chinese diasporic art through a transnational and comparative framework. The Asymmetry Chinese Comparative Diasporas Lab Initiative will support doctoral research and scholarly exchange examining Chinese and Sinophone diasporas in relation to geographies and communities around the world.
At the centre of the initiative will be the support for two Asymmetry PhD Fellowships in the Comparative Study of Chinese Diasporic Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, forming the foundation of a new Chinese Comparative Diasporas Lab model. The fellows will pursue original research that expands conventional geographic and disciplinary approaches to the study of Chinese diasporic art, while drawing on the IFA’s strengths in Asian, African, South American, Caribbean, and contemporary art. The initiative will encourage students to consider the movement of artists, objects, ideas, and cultural practices across regions and to explore how migration and exchange have shaped visual culture.
The fellows will also have opportunities to engage with the IFA’s extensive network of museum and cultural partners in New York. Through collections and archival research and potential curatorial projects, students will be able to connect art-historical inquiry with the study of primary materials and museum practice. The IFA’s longstanding relationships with institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art offer an especially rich environment in which to undertake this work.
An annual symposium on comparative Chinese and Sinophone diasporas will provide a public and scholarly forum for the initiative. Bringing together researchers, curators, students, and other specialists, the symposium will explore intersections among migration, histories, artistic exchange, and visual culture across different geographic contexts. The fellows will have the opportunity to present their research alongside established voices in the field, fostering new conversations and collaborations and contributing to a growing body of scholarship on diasporic art.
Alongside their placements at the IFA, the fellows will also become part of Asymmetry's wider community of curators, scholars, artists, writers, researchers and cultural practitioners. Joining a close-knit cohort of fellows and scholars, they will participate in an ongoing programme of research, conversation and peer exchange across Asymmetry's international network of partner museums and universities. Throughout the PhD, the fellows will also be encouraged to develop and present their own research through Asymmetry's programme to test ideas publicly while contributing to discursive or exhibitionary programmes, critical inquiry, research, writing and exchange.
‘Area studies gave us the categories. The more interesting work now is tracing what moves across them – and the premise of this initiative is that Chinese diasporic art gains its fullest meaning in relation to other histories of migration, exchange, and visual culture. The IFA's strengths in Asian, African, South American, and Caribbean art history make it an unusual place to test that premise rigorously. We are deeply grateful to Asymmetry for sharing that conviction.’
–– Joan Kee, Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director of the Institute of Fine Arts
‘Art histories have never developed within fixed geographic boundaries, and neither should the scholarship that engages with them. Our partnership with the Institute of Fine Arts creates new conditions for emerging scholars to pursue research across geographies, disciplines and cultural contexts. By bringing together the IFA’s academic community and Asymmetry’s international network, we hope to enable ambitious comparative research that is rigorous, expansive and responsive to the ways in which artists, ideas and histories move across the world.’
––Yan Du, Founder of Asymmetry
The IFA joins an established line of institutional and academic partnerships with Asymmetry to support curatorial work and scholarly research alongside Chisenhale Gallery, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, Nottingham Contemporary, SculptureCenter, New York, and Tate Modern.
The global Open Call for the inaugural Asymmetry PhD Fellowships in the Comparative Study of Chinese Diasporic Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University will open shortly for entry in autumn 2027. For full requirements and to apply, please visit IFA’s website. The application deadline is 1 December 2026.
About the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU
Founded in 1932, the Institute of Fine Arts is a centre of graduate training and research in art history, archaeology, and conservation. The Institute has a faculty unrivalled in the breadth and depth of its expertise and in the range of its adjunct lecturers from top museums, research institutes, and conservation studios. The Institute has conferred more than 4,000 degrees, and its alumni hold leadership roles as professors, curators, museum directors, archaeologists, conservators, critics, and institutional administrators throughout the U.S. and internationally.