Digitization of Gandharan Artefacts

Professor (W2) for the History of South Asian Religions
 

Jessie Pons studied history of art, archaeology, Indian studies, and museum studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), the École du Louvre, and the University of Paris. In 2011, she earned her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Paris-Sorbonne with a dissertation on early Buddhist art from Gandhāra. From 2010 to 2016, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Religious Studies at Ruhr University Bochum, where she also held a Käte Hamburger Kolleg (KHK) Research Fellowship (2013–2014). Since January 2016, she has been Professor of South Asian History of Religions at Ruhr University Bochum, initially as Junior Professor and, from 2025 onward, as W2 Professor.

Trained as an art historian, Jessie Pons explores how religion and art intersect and how material objects shape religious communication, lived experiences, and scholarly interpretation. Her research focuses especially on Gandhara, the historical region spanning present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, long a cultural crossroads of Asia. Building on her research on Gandharan sculptural styles, she revisits central questions in the history of Buddhism in the region, including networks of communication between sites and actors, the emergence of Mahāyāna Buddhism, patterns of cultural and religious interaction, and the spread of the Buddha’s hagiography through text and image.

More broadly, her research cultivates a systematic focus on “materiality” in the study of South Asian religions. She is particularly interested in the role of material objects in processes of transfer between traditions – Hindu, Buddhist, and beyond – and in the ways they mediate encounters across cultures and religions. She also engages with wider debates on the preservation of religious heritage in digital form, and on the appropriation, destruction, or reconstruction of sites and artworks for shifting ideological purposes.
Her interest in these questions stems from her active involvement in several international projects dedicated to the digital documentation and preservation of Buddhist artefacts, including the DiGA project and the Pelagios Working Group (coordinated with Frederik Elwert). These collaborations have shaped her innovative use of Digital Humanities methods to study Buddhist material culture and opened new avenues for understanding religion through its material remains.

On appointment

Early Buddhism and Buddhist art, Gandharan Studies, Religion and Materiality in South Asia, Digital Humanities, Inter-religious encounters in early South Asia, Religion and Art, Preservation of religious sites and objects

Education

• Ph.D., History of Art, University of Paris 4, Paris Sorbonne, Paris, France 2011
• B.A., Indian Studies, University of Paris 3, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France 2009
• M.Phil., History of Art, University of Paris 4, Paris Sorbonne, Paris, France 2006
• M.A., Museum Studies, Louvre School, Paris, France 2005
• M.A., Archeology, University of Paris 1, Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France 2004
• B.A., History of Art, Louvre School, Paris, France 2003
• B.A. History of Art and Archeology, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, UK 2002

Professional Experience

• October 2019. Guest Professor, Centre for the Comparative Studies of Civilizations, Jagiellonian University, Kraków.
• April 2014-January 2016. Post-doctoral Researcher (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin), Ruhr University Bochum, Centre for Religious Studies, Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe”
• April 2013-March 2014. Visiting Research Fellow, Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Ruhr University Bochum.
• December 2010-November 2012. Post-doctoral Researcher (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin), Ruhr University Bochum, Centre for Religious Studies /MERCUR
• October 2006-September 2009. Doctoral Researcher (Allocataire de Recherche), University of Paris 4 – Paris Sorbonne, Paris
   

Forthcoming (2024)

Monographs

- Spring 2024: Arts du Gandhara. Richesse, diversité et répartition des ateliers de sculpteurs sur pierre, Association pour la protection de l’archéologie afghane, Strasbourg, (Archaeologia Afghana).

- D. Jongeward, T. Lenz, J. Neelis and J. Pons, Buddhist Rebirth Narratives in Literary and Visual Cultures of Gandhara.

Edited volumes

- Spring 2024: De l’Oxus au Gange : Études en l’honneur de Francine Tissot. Actes du colloque en l’honneur de Francine Tissot organisé par Jessie Pons et Osmund Bopearachchi, à l’École Normale Supérieure, Paris, le 8 juin 2013 et enrichis de nouvelles contributions, Association pour la protection de l’archéologie afghane, Strasbourg (Archaeologia Afghana).

Articles (peer-reviewed)

- In press: Gandhāran Arts and Tracks: A Reappraisal of the Stylistic Ties between the Swat Valley, Zar Dheri and Taxila, in A. Filigenzi (ed.), Proceedings of the 24th conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art, 26 July 2018, Rome, ISMEO, 20 pages.

Book chapters

- In press: O. Bordeaux and J. Pons, L’empire indien des Kouchans, in C. Ferrier (eds.), Histoire Ancienne et Médiévale de l'Inde du Nord (Nouvelle Clio), Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.

Introductory Classes (in German or English on demand)

On regular offer

• Südasiatische Religionsgeschichte (Vorlesung)
• Einführung in hinduistische Religionen (Selbstlektürekurs)
• Einführung in Buddhismus (Selbstlektürekurs)

Seminars (in English)

Current Summer Semester 2024

• Women in South Asian Religions
• Religion and Materiality in South Asia

Past Semesters

• Digital Buddhism and Hinduism
• Mediating the Transcendant in South Asia
• Past and Present Discourses on Religion and Media in South Asian Traditions
• Archaeology of Hinduism
• Archaeology of Buddhism
• Gods in South Asian Religions 
• The Buddha´s Biography: Buddhist Pilgrimage in South Asia
• The Body of the Buddha
• From Monkey to Buddha: Jātaka Tales in South Asia
• Buddhism in Gandhāra: History and Reception
• Buddhism in Gandhāra: Religious and Cultural Encounters at the Crossroads of Asia
• Dialogues between Hindus, Buddhists and Jains 
• Women actors in Hindu Narrative and Normative Traditions

eCourses

Buddhismus (Südasien) – OpenRUB.: https://moodle.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/course/edit.php?id=52092. 
Hinduismus – OpenRUB.: https://moodle.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/course/view.php?id=56523.

PhD Supervisions

Completed

Percy Arfeen: Transcending Boundaries: Material Culture of Sacred Spaces in Premodern and Early Modern Kerala, South India

Tillo Detige: Eternal Salutations: Early Modern Digambara Jaina Renouncers' Funerary Monuments from Western and Central India

Lillian Sellati: When is Herakles Not Himself? Mediating Cultural Plurality in Greater Central Asia, 330BCE-365CE (Department of the History of Art, Yale University.