Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Sandra Cate, anthropologist and folklorist, explores the material and expressive culture of Southeast Asia, in such diverse manifestations as Buddhist temple murals, narrative scrolls, festivals, silk-weaving, needlework, and traffic jams in Bangkok. Sandra has taught a broad range of cultural anthropology classes, focusing on global processes, art in cultural context, religion and ritual, consumption and exchange, gender and sexuality, tourism, and concepts of heritage. She has also written on Southeast Asian contemporary art.

Sandra’s publications include Making Merit, Making Art: A Thai Temple in Wimbledon (2003), Buddhist Storytelling in Thailand and Laos: The Vessantara Jataka Scroll at the Asian Civilisations Museum (2013), and numerous book chapters and book reviews.

Now retired, she trained at the University of California, Berkeley, and taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz and San José State University in Silicon Valley.