A key element of the work done by this department has been its projects that have taken place throughout Switzerland in various museum and private collections. As the only Swiss chair of East Asian art history, the department has a responsibility to work with Swiss museums and collectors in helping to identify objects in their collections and to help with the cataloguing and exhibiting of East Asian objects. As a result, we are actively involved in the research of numerous collections and have not only worked with museums in staging over a dozen exhibitions of East Asian objects, but have written numerous publications over the last years.

Moreover, through these projects we have discovered and researched the lives of numerous Swiss citizens from the seventeenth century onwards who have been involved with East Asia and have brought back objects, techniques, and ideas that have shaped the reception of East Asia within Switzerland. Through these projects we hope to discover the many cross-cultural connections of the past and to understand the material and intellectual legacies of the people who connected the East and the West.

A key part of this research has been the student participation at all levels of experience. Not only are advanced doctoral and MA students participants in the projects, but also beginning BA students. Through this on-hands archival work, young scholars learn the tools of the trade and the cutting-edge techniques of research. Our aim is to teach the arts of East Asia and the methods of art historical research to a new generation of professionals.