Biography

Helena Chen-Abair is the program assistant to the Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History (HESCAH) series. She works with the HESCAH committee and faculty sponsors to bring national and internationally recognized artists and scholars to the University of Florida campus. For more information about the HESCAH program, please visit arts.ufl.edu/HESCAH.

Helena is also a PhD candidate in art history at the University of Florida specializing in Chinese antiquarianism. Her dissertation explores the forgery of ancient Chinese ritual bronzes in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. She is a 2024-25 Smithsonian History of Art Predoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of Asian Art, a 2025-26 Sylvan C. Coleman and Pam Coleman Memorial Fund Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an Andrew W. Mellon Society Junior Fellow in Critical Bibliography.