The late Joanna Williams was a pioneer in the study of South and Southeast Asian art and architecture whose deep scholarship and iconoclastic teaching style touched generations of Berkeley scholars. By leaving a gift in her will to establish the Juggernaut Fund, Williams provided a flexible source of support for scholars exploring a vast and varied territory of art, history, religion, and culture. In particular, the fund supports scholars of the trade routes known collectively as the Silk Road, which connected far-flung points from China through India and Central Asia and, by maritime routes, through Japan and Southeast Asia.
In 1967, after completing her dissertation at Harvard, Williams took a joint appointment at Berkeley’s Departments of History of Art and South and Southeast Asian Studies. The political situation at that time prevented her from traveling to Khotan, a site on the Silk Road that had been the focus of her dissertation. Since China opened to the United States in the late 1970s, there has been an upswing in scholarly interest in the Silk Road and the regions it winds through.
“[The Juggernaut Fund] is designed to encompass Indic cultures writ large,” says Professor Emerita of Chinese Art Patricia Berger, a former student of Williams who became a friend and colleague. Berger noted that the fund amplifies the impact of Berkeley’s Tang Center for Silk Road Studies, which has significantly contributed to the growing academic interest in Central Asia. Like the pathways that connected ancient civilizations and transmitted philosophies along with goods, Williams’s estate gift will sustain a breadth of projects. “Joanna was interested in the whole area. She decided the money should be available for faculty and student research as well as public events — that its purpose should be decided by the center’s board.”
