Dr. James CASWELL Memorial Scholarship in Art History

Award descriptionA $10,000 scholarship has been made available annually through a gift from the Y. P. Heung Foundation, in memory of Dr. James Caswell (1937-2016), for an outstanding Ph.D. student in Art History who has achieved candidacy. Dr. Caswell was born in Washington, D.C, and was a proud member of the White Earth band of the Minnesota Chippewa. He attended the University of Michigan, where he earned his undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees. Dr. Caswell joined UBC in 1971, and served as Head of what was then known as the Department of Fine Arts from 1981 to 1997 and from 2001 to 2002. His areas of focus were Chinese art, early Buddhist sculpture, particularly the Buddhist cave art at Dunhuang and Yungang, and early Chinese bronzes and paintings. In 1985 he curated an exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery of James Cahill's collection of Chinese paintings. Dr. Caswell retired from UBC as a Professor Emeritus in 2002. The scholarship is made on the recommendation of the Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, in consultation with the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.