Julie Nelson Davis Named Paul F. Miller, Jr. and E. Warren Shafer Miller Professor of History of Art
Julie Nelson Davis has been named Paul F. Miller, Jr. and E. Warren Shafer Miller Professor of History of Art. Davis joined Penn’s Department of History of Art as an assistant professor in 2002, before becoming an associate professor in 2008 and professor in 2016. She has served as the Undergraduate Chair, Graduate Chair, and Department Chair.
Davis specializes in the arts and material cultures of 18th- and 19th-century Japan, with a focus on prints, paintings, and illustrated books. She is recognized as a leader in the field of ukiyo-e (“images of the floating world”) and employs an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the artistic practice, authorship, and censorship of these works.
Having published numerous articles and essays on early modern and modern Japanese art, Davis is also author of the books Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty and Partners in Print: Artistic Collaboration and the Ukiyo-e Market, both ground-breaking studies of ukiyo-e. In her most recent book, Picturing the Floating World: Ukiyo-e in Context, Davis debunks long-held myths about ukiyo-e as unappreciated in their own time and writes a more nuanced evaluation wherein ukiyo-e are described as valuable and artistic works.
Selected as a Guggenheim Fellow for 2021, Davis is currently working on a new project about imitation, homage, and fabrication in ukiyo-e painting, as well as a second project on artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849) and illustrated books.
Davis’s departmental and university service includes being an active contributor to the Center for East Asian Studies, as well as topic director at the Wolf Humanities Forum. She was the founding Director of the Penn Forum on Japan, serving in that role from 2015 to 2020, and co-founder of the Penn Faculty Working Group for Reading Asian Manuscripts. Davis is currently principal investigator on a University Research Foundation grant and a participant in a Japanese government grant collaborating on research of the Tress Collection of Japanese Illustrated Books in the Penn Libraries. She has served as lead curator at the National Museum of Asian Art, as well as for several exhibitions at Penn.
The late Paul F. Miller Jr., W’50, HON’81, and his wife, Ella Warren Shafer Miller, CW’51, established the professorship. Paul Miller served as Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees from 1978 to 1986. He also served as Chair of the Board of Managers of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and on the Board of Advisors at the Wharton School and Penn Arts & Sciences. He received Penn’s Alumni Award of Merit in 1982. Ella Miller also served on the Board of Advisors at Penn Arts & Sciences. In addition to establishing the professorship, they generously supported many initiatives throughout the University.
