Overview
My primary research focuses on the global dimensions of Islamic visual cultures in Maritime Southeast Asia, the evolution of aesthetic perspectives on visual arts and craftsmanship during the early modern period, and the construction and historiography of the notion of ‘Islamic’ art. Throughout my research, I trace the cultural-critical formation of selected Southeast Asian artists through the modalities of race, ethnicity, and nation that underpin the discursive creation of this cultural subject.
Recent Projects
My journal article “Desde el Cielo: Real Photo Postcards and the Counter-Archive of Alfonso Ongpin” has undergone peer-review and will be published in Art History (OUP).
My journal article “Intellectual and Social Currents in the Establishment of Manila’s Academia Dibujo y Pintura (1821-1834)” has undergone peer-review and will be published in Sojourn (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute).
My journal article “Irineo Miranda’s Ethnographic Portraits of Nina Rasul and the Philippine Bangsamoro” has been published (March 2025) in Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints.
I wrote a book review of Resil Mojares’s Enigmatic Objects (ADMU Press 2023) which came out in Southeast Asian Studies published by CSEAS Kyoto University (April 2025).
I wrote the introduction and annotated object list for Philippine items at the Cornell Anthropological Collection for Mapping Philippine Material Culture, a digital humanities project hosted by SOAS.
I wrote a section on the 19th to 20th century Manila art scene in the upcoming Philippine Reader (Duke University Press, TBA) edited by Vicente Rafael.
Area of Interest
entrepôts, maritime southeast asia, muslim societies, nacre and pearl, glass, agimat
Research Languages
Philippine and Indonesian languages, Spanish; German; Dutch
Education
I am currently PhD candidate in the Department of History of Art at Cornell University.
Teaching
I taught courses in Art History at the Fine Arts Department of the Ateneo de Manila and I led discussion groups as a Teaching Assistant at Columbia. From 2023-2024, I organized the Gatty Lecture Series with colleagues at Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program. This is one of the longest running lecture series with a history dating back to the postwar period. See current courses here.
Geronimo Cristobal 