Catherine Asher is a professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Minnesota. She has written extensively on Indian art and architecture since 1200 in a series of essays and books, but has been particularly interested in the Mughals and how they were perceived in the 19th through 21st centuries. Her essay “Multiple Memories: Lives of the Taj Mahal,” in Crossing Cultures: Conflict / Migration / Convergence, (2008) is a recent reflection of this interest. Her initial interest in this project derives from her book, Architecture of Mughal India (1992) and her co-edited volume, Perceptions of South Asia’s Visual Past (1994). This theme and others is explored in her co-authored book, India before Europe (2006). Currently Catherine Asher is working on the built environment of Jaipur from its foundation in the 18th century to the present.