Paola Demattè is Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology in the Theory and History of Art and Design department at Rhode Island School of Design. She holds a Laurea in Chinese Language and Literature from the Università degli Studi di Venezia and a Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has written on the origins of Chinese writing, pre-dynastic urbanism, archaic jades and funerary art and on Jesuits’ activities in China. Prof. Demattè has also curated an exhibition at the Getty Center and co-authored an award-winning volume on Sino-European exchanges in the 16th through the 19th centuries (China on Paper, Getty Publications 2007).

Academic research/areas of interest

Paola Demattè specializes in the Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology of China, prehistoric art and East-West contacts and exchanges.