Dr Lesley S Pullen

Lesley Pullen relocated to London in 1997 and completed her Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art in 1998. She worked at Asia House in London as Programme Manager until 2000. Lesley completed her Taught Masters under Professor Elizabeth Moore on a part-time basis in 2008, submitting her dissertation titled ‘Kain Bebali of East Bali’. She completed her PhD under Dr Christian Luczanits on a part-time basis in October 2017, submitting her thesis titled 'Representation of Textiles on Classical Javanese Sculpture'. Whilst completing her studies, Lesley tutored the Southeast Asian Art module of the Postgraduate Diploma from 2009 to 2015, and three Specialist Art Short Courses on Asian textiles, under Course Director Dr Heather Elgood. She tutors a Short Course on the ‘Maritime Silk Route’ in November 2018. Since 2015 Lesley has tutored the Southeast Asia module of the V&A Museum Arts of Asia Year course, and also lectured on the Southeast Asia module at Jnanapravaha Mumbai. SOAS appointed Lesley a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the School of Arts in January 2018. She is currently working towards publishing her PhD thesis as a monograph, whilst continuing to lecture widely and to build a body of published material.

• Medieval history and trade goods within Asia.
• Material cultures in South and Southeast Asia.
• Hindu Buddhist sculptures of the Indic traditions.
• Austronesian and ‘tribal’ peoples in the wider region.
• Island Southeast Asia traditional textiles and jewellery.
• Contemporary initiatives to preserve traditional craftsmanship.