Joy’s research focuses on Medieval Chinese and Japanese religious art. Her intellectual passion lies in the nexus of religion and art history: through bridging the two disciplines, she is interested in examining how images, material objects, sounds, and space perform and enact the sacred through the embodied engagement of the devotees. Her research ranges from Buddhist and Daoist portraiture, Medieval Chan (Zen) Buddhist monochrome ink paintings, and the soundscape in Buddhist texts, rituals, and art to the visual and material culture of sacred sites and pilgrimage.

Prior to starting the doctoral program, Joy completed her M.A. in Regional Studies East Asia at Harvard University. Her M.A. thesis Multivalent Likeness: Picturing Sociality, Biography, and Soteriology in Medieval Chinese Portraiture won the 2022 Fletcher Memorial Award. Joy also holds a BA in Art History and East Asian Studies from New York University with high departmental honors. Profile Type Doctoral Students (PhD)