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The field of art history has long been structured by discrete geographical units. Realizing the limitations of nation-state-based narratives and seeking to decolonize the discipline, art historians are increasingly questioning these geographical divides. Honored as a Distinguished Scholar at the 2018 CAA Annual Conference, Wu Hung argued that Chinese art history is global art history. Wu is not alone in invoking the global. Informed by border-transcending contemporary phenomena—climate change, disease, migration, trade, and communication, to name a few—many art historians who specialize in discrete geographical regions now also are pursuing a global dimension in their research. Panels at recent CAA conferences have, for example, explored the art of nomadic peoples across the Eurasian steppes, the circulation of art in the Indian Ocean world, and the hybrid forms of the Manchu Qing court. Artworks demonstrating “flamboyant circulation,” such as the Safavid carpet that becomes a samurai costume, vividly make the point that Asian art is part of a long, global history. But, how much of this global history makes it into the classroom?

This lightning-round panel brings together six scholar-teachers from various institutions to discuss strategies for infusing introductory and intermediate undergraduate courses with an understanding of the global nature of Asian art. Largely geographically and temporally organized, teaching materials often retroactively apply the nation-state structure to art history by default. This panel, in contrast, discusses ways to bring the dynamic, inter-regional, and global approaches that characterize research in Asian art history to bear on teaching.