Dr. Mary-Ann Milford
Provost and Dean of the Faculty

Dr. Mary-Ann Milford has served as Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Mills College in Oakland, California since January of 2003. Additionally, she holds the Carver Chair in East Asian Studies and is Professor of Asian Art History. Prior to assuming her role as Provost and Dean of the Faculty, she was Dean of Fine Arts and served on numerous committees in her 20 years of service to Mills College.

Mary-Ann Milford received her Ph.D. in 1984, from the University of California, Berkeley, for which she researched the texts and sculptural reliefs of the Kiratarjuniyam and Arjunawiwaha in South and Southeast Asian art and architecture. She has recently curated numerous Asian Art exhibitions including Zarina Hashmi’s art, Mapping A Life, and Women Artists of India: A Celebration of Independence, an exhibition of the art of fifteen women artists that coincided with India’s 50 years of independence.

In 1993/94 Dr. Milford received senior fellowships from the American Institute for Indian Studies (AIIS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to study contemporary South Asian art focusing on the work of women artists in India. She has written on traditional Indian and Indonesian art and curated exhibitions including Myths and Symbols in Indonesian Art, in 1991 and The Image of Women in Indian Art, in 1985. 

Among her publications are articles and reviews that have appeared in Artibus Asiae, Artweek, Crossroads, Journal of Asian Studies, New Asia Review, Orientations, and India Currents. She has also written exhibition catalogues. 

Dr. Milford is currently on the Board of Directors of the American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA), ASIANetwork, and the College Art Association (CAA).  She also serves on the Advisory Committee for the Society for Asian Art of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. In 1995 she served as an NGO Delegate to the United Nations 4th International Conference on Women in Beijing, China.

Provost Milford was born in England and has lived in India. Her current research is on women artists in India. She is interested in the role of artists as observers and critics of the social and political situation, who through the narrative of their visual responses give insights into a culture that is seeking to redefine itself in the postcolonial era.