Beatrix MECSI

Beatrix MECSI

Visiting Scholar
Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest

Beatrix Mecsi is an art historian with a specialisation in East Asian Art. She is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Department of Korean Studies at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest. She has studied European Art History, Japanese Studies, and Korean Studies in Eötvös Loránd University. After finishing her M.A. degrees (Art History 1998; Japanese Studies 1999), she moved to the U.K. and obtained her Ph.D. degree in Art and Archaeology (2004) with a thesis on "How Bodhidharma Came to the East: Representations of the First Zen Patriarch in East Asian Art" from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She has completed her habilitation in 2009 at the University of Pécs in the field of East Asian art history. Her research interest includes religious iconography in East Asia, text-image relationships, art theory, and contemporary art. She won the Pro Scientia golden medal bestowed by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for outstanding research in 1999, and other prizes with her scholarship in art history. She taught, among others, at the University of London (SOAS), at the Sotheby's Institute in London, and at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. While at the Department in the 2019/20 winter semester, Professor Mecsi co-ordinates a course on "Introducing East Asian Religious Arts."