Soumya James is an independent art historian working on premodern  South Indian and Southeast Asian art with a focus on Cambodia. Her research explores the confluence of religious, eco-political and geographic factors that influence and localize the choice and iconography of images. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies in Cornell University. Her dissertation, “The symbiosis of image, monument and landscape: A study of select goddess images at Prasat Kravan, Banteay Srei and Kbal Spean in Cambodia,” focused on goddess images at three Angkor-period sites dated between the early 10th to 11th century C.E.  Her work examines the relationship between landscape and built forms, gender and sexuality and the significance of the feminine in the eco-political landscape of Angkor. In a recent paper published in 2021 in the journal  Antennae  she argued that the bas-relief  titled ’37 Heavens and 32 Hells’ was a visual representation of desires and fears socially co-constructed with the natural and engineered landscape of Angkor. A forthcoming publication examines the relationship between śrī (the goddess and the metaphor) and kingship in Angkor’s material and literary landscape. In addition to academic pursuits, Soumya also owns a small business where she designs and makes block-printed artisanal home linen. 

The process of linking ideas, histories and physical spaces to objects in constructing meaning share core commonalities across time, a significant feature of the COOP project. Soumya’s work on Angkor’s political and economic history and her engagement with colonial and postcolonial scholarship would contribute to discussions on the movement of objects through space and time. A complementary theme in her past and ongoing research is the construction of meaning through frames and frameworks, both “natural” and anthropogenic. She also brings to the project her experience in conducting fieldwork in Cambodia and Laos.