About

PhD in Buddhist Art History

Bryan Sauvadet

PhD in East Asian Studies and Humanities, specializing in the history of Buddhist art. My work combines research, university teaching, academic translation, and fieldwork in East Asia.

Teacher — Researcher — Translator✉ bryan.sauvadet@gmail.com

Education

June 2026

Paris, France

PhD — East Asian Studies and Humanities · History of Korean Buddhist Art

Paris Cité University · Doctoral School 131 · Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (UFR LCAO) · China, Korea and Japan Research Center (UMR CCJ)

Doctoral contract (2019–2023); Korea Foundation fellow (2023–2024). Supervisors: Yannick Bruneton (Université Paris Cité) and Estelle Bauer (Inalco).

Dissertation: Continuity and artistic evolution of Korean court Buddhist images in relation to patrons and politico-religious changes during the Koryŏ–Chosŏn transition (14th–16th centuries).

2018

Paris, France

Maîtrise — Vietnamese Studies · Buddhist Art History (LLCER)

Paris Diderot University (Paris 7)

Supervisors: Emmanuel Poisson and Pénélope Riboud.

Thesis: An iconographic and stylistic study of representations of the Ten Kings in nineteenth-century Vietnam.

2017

Paris, France

Master’s degree — Korean Studies · Buddhist Art History (LLCER)

National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO)

Supervisors: Yannick Bruneton and Pénélope Riboud.

Thesis: A history of representations of the Ten Kings in Korean Buddhist painting: iconography, circulation, discourses, and uses of images as a model of local adaptation (14th–16th centuries).

2017

Paris, France

Bachelor’s degree — Vietnamese Studies (LLCER)

National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) · Paris Diderot University (Paris 7)

2014

Paris, France

Bachelor’s degree — Korean Studies (LLCER)

National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO)

2013

Paris, France

Introductory diploma — Chinese Studies

National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO)

Professional activities

October 2024 – June 2026

Paris, France

Lecturer

Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (UFR LCAO) · Paris Cité University

Methodology Workshop 1
Sinography 2
Religions in Korea — Korean Buddhism
History of East Asia — Buddhism in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam
History of Korean Buddhist Art

April 2022 – June 2026

South Korea

Translator — K-Academics (K-MOOC)

Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea · Korean Studies Promotion Service (KSPS) · Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) · Dongguk University

Translation of video seminar subtitles from Korean and English into French.

Korean Buddhist art history in a global perspective
Buddhist cultures in East Asia
Buddhist magic and medicine in Korea
Buddhist politics and culture in Korea
Korean Buddhist archaeology
History of Korean Buddhism and the royal court
Korean Buddhist art collections in museums around the world
Buddhism and premodern diplomacy
Buddhist architecture

Fellowships, research stays & international missions

October 2023

Fukuoka, Japan

Visiting researcher

Kyushu University · Kyushu National Museum

Research for an exhibition devoted to Korean Buddhist paintings held in Japanese collections.

July 2023

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Doctoral fellow

University of Cambridge · Glorisun Global Buddhist Network

September 2023

Seoul, South Korea

Visiting researcher — Next Generation Korean Art Historian Workshop

Korea Foundation

Final presentation: When Contemporary Buddhist Art Is Queer: A Study of the Works of Pak Kŭrim.

June 2023

Princeton, United States

Doctoral fellowship recipient

Princeton University · Glorisun Global Buddhist Network

International Conference on Ritual and Materiality in Buddhism and Asian Religions.

January–March 2023

Fukuoka, Kyoto, Tokyo — Japan

Visiting researcher / doctoral fellow

Kyushu University · Kyushu National Museum · French School of Asian Studies (EFEO), Kyoto Center

November 2022

Los Angeles, United States

Visiting researcher

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) — Korean Art Department

Authentication and provenance research.

October 2022

Houston, United States

Visiting instructor

Rice University — Department of Transnational Asian Studies

Courses: Transnational Buddhist Art History; Korean and Vietnamese Heritage and Art History.

October–December 2021

Seoul, South Korea

Doctoral fellow

French School of Asian Studies (EFEO) — Seoul Center

August 2019

Seoul, South Korea

Visiting researcher — International Workshop of Korean Art

Korea Foundation

Final presentation: The Political Use of Relics: A Comparison between Silla and the Kingdom of France.

August 2018

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Scholarship student — intensive Vietnamese course

Ho Chi Minh City University of Education

July 2018

Sŏngnam, South Korea

Visiting student — Classical Chinese Workshop (Hanmun / 漢文)

Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) · 한국학중앙연구원 / 韓國學中央硏究院

August 2017

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Scholarship student — intensive Vietnamese course

Vietnam National University — University of Social Sciences and Humanities

July 2017

Sŏngnam, South Korea

Visiting student — Classical Chinese Workshop (Hanmun / 漢文)

Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) · 한국학중앙연구원 / 韓國學中央硏究院

July 2015

P’yŏngyang, North Korea

Visiting student — intensive Korean course

Kim Il Sung University · 김일성종합대학

Conference papers & invited talks

December 2024

Paris, France

AFPEC Inaugural Conference

Bypassing anti-Buddhist policy through a “performative window”: ritual scenes in sixteenth-century Korean Sweet Dew paintings.

March 2024

Seattle, United States

AAS Annual Conference

Panel organizer: “Court Policy, State Politics, and Their Religious Outcomes in Pre-Modern East Asian Material Culture”.

Paper: Bypassing Anti-Buddhist Restrictions through a “Window of Performativity”: Ritual Scene Apparition in 16th Century Korean Buddhist Painting.

July 2023

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Local Practices and Popular Beliefs in Buddhism · Cambridge Graduate Student Conference on East Asian Studies

The Buddhist Ritual Ban and the Emergence of the “Sweet Dew Paintings” in 16th Century Korea.

May 2023

Paris, France

China, Korea and Japan Research Center (UMR CCJ) Early-Career Researchers’ Day · EHESS

What if the image no longer represents? Questions on the materiality and iconography of Buddhist images in relation to Korean court rituals (14th–16th centuries).

December 2022

Berlin, Germany

Special Lecture Series 2022 — Collecting and Preserving Korean Art in Europe · Free University of Berlin

Encounter the Korean Buddhist collections from the Musée Guimet: Their history and masterpieces.

May 2022

Paris, France

China, Korea and Japan Research Center (UMR CCJ) Early-Career Researchers’ Day · EHESS

From nostalgia to sameness: a taste for the old in Korean court Buddhist art (1459–1598).

February 2022

Houston, United States

Chao Center Guest Lecture · Rice University

Politic, Nostalgia and Imagination: An attempt to approach Korean Buddhist art.

October 2021

La Rochelle, France

AKSE Conference

Political practice “beyond the rituals”: The use of gendered and religious discourses in Korean Buddhist court images (1270–1598).

May 2021

Paris, France

China, Korea and Japan Research Center (UMR CCJ) Early-Career Researchers’ Day · EHESS

When Korean Buddhist images become court art: adaptations, circulations, and feminization (1270–1598).

June 2018

Paris, France

North Korean Studies Conference · Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University

Some examples of Buddhist and Taoist artistic heritage in North Korea.

March 2017

Paris, France

European Conference about Korean Heritage Studies and Archaeology · EHESS

Religious Art in North Korea: The Missing Link in Korean Heritage Studies.

May 2016

Paris, France

International Workshop on Buddhist Art History · National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO)

Journeys across the realm of the Dead: Narratives, rituals, and images.

Which hell for which Korea? An Aesthetic and Layout study about representations of the Ten Kings of Hell in Korean Peninsula.

Languages & digital skills

Languages

French — native
English — fluent
Korean / 한국어 · 조선말 — advanced
Vietnamese / Tiếng Việt — advanced
Japanese / 日本語 — intermediate
Classical Chinese / 漢文 — intermediate
Mandarin Chinese / 中文 — intermediate
Standard Tibetan (Lhasa / བོད་སྐད་) — basic knowledge

Digital skills

Microsoft Office
XnView
PDFCreator
EzPDF — implementation / editing
Naver suite — editing
Kakao suite — editing
Papyrus Nalkaeset — implementation / editing