History of Art and Architecture

Liwen (Shirley) Wei is a first-year PhD student in the Department of the History of Art and
Architecture. Her research currently focuses on Roman art and material culture, with a particular
interest in representations of dance, performance, and the body. She is interested in how
performers participated in the construction and negotiation of cultural, social, and gender
identities across the Roman world.
Shirley approaches ancient art through close attention to objects, materials, and archaeological
context. Drawing on affective, embodied, and multisensory approaches, she is interested in how
performance was experienced and mediated through bodies, objects, and built environments, and
how these encounters shaped perceptions of movement, presence, and identity. She holds an MA
in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University and a BA in Art History and
Classical Civilization from New York University.