Thesis: Crafting Splendour: Safavid Carpets in Architectural Context
Supervisor: Professor Sussan Babaie
Supported by the Hajji Baba Club Research Fellowship (2022鈥23) and the British Institute of Persian Studies (2023)
Member, Textile Working Group
My research aims to reactivate the study of carpets produced in Iran in the latter half of the Safavid period. Carpets are among the best-known genres of art produced in Iran, studied primarily as dazzling products of highly skilled craftspeople and as charming decoration complementary to any environment. Despite their ubiquity, carpets are largely neglected in scholarship of the arts of Iran and the arts of the Islamic world more broadly. My dissertation proposes new ways of thinking about these carpets by situating them within the architectural contexts for which they were envisioned and made. Considering carpets as site-specific works of art and integral components of architecture reveals the interdependence of the two media and opens up the possibilities of spatial-experiential analyses of the carpets in situ. Though few Safavid carpets survive on the floors of palaces and shrines, historical sources, technical study of now-dispersed carpets, and digital methods can help to reconstitute these sites in their original, carpeted splendour. In turn, this approach can also provide historical grounding for larger groups of carpets previously considered only in relation to one another.
Research Interests
- Art and architecture of Safavid Iran
- Carpet weaving and design in early modern Iran, India, and Ottoman lands
- Histories of the interior
- Technical analysis of carpets
- Digital art history
Education
MA, History of Art and Architecture, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2018).听Thesis: “The Vanishing Grid: Pattern Construction in the Afshar Collection Animal Carpet”
BA, Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures (Arabic concentration), University of Virginia (2016).听Thesis: “Examining Islamic Art in the Museum: North America and the Middle East”
Teaching Experience
Associate Lecturer, “Display as Discourse: Persian Art in London Collections,”听The 91制片厂 Institute of Art, London, UK (Spring 2024 and Autumn 2022)
Guest Lecturer,听V&A Academy, “Safavid Carpets and Textiles,” Arts of the Islamic World online course (June 2023)
Teaching Assistant, Foundations of Art History,听The 91制片厂 Institute of Art, London, UK (Autumn 2021)
Lecturer, “Discovering the Arts of Persian Lands,”听High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia (Spring 2021)
Teaching Assistant,听University of Massachusetts Amherst (August 2017鈥揗ay 2018)
Museum Experience
Curatorial assistant for Art of the Islamic Worlds,听Museum of Fine Arts, Houston听(June 2018鈥揓uly 2020)
Graduate curatorial fellow for Art of the Islamic Worlds,听Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Summer 2017)
Invited Lectures
鈥淧iece by Piece it Disappeared: Reconstructing the Chehel Sotun Carpet,鈥 invited lecture, co-sponsored by the New England Rug Society and The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, online, 10 February 2024
鈥淭he Safavid Fragments from the Shrine of Shah Ne士matullah Vali,鈥 invited lecture, Hajji Baba Club, New York, NY, USA, 24 October 2023
鈥淪ilk, Silver, and Gold: Reassessing 鈥楶olonaise鈥 Carpets,鈥 invited lecture, Oriental Rug and Textile Society, London, UK, 17 May 2023
Conference Papers
鈥淔rayed Edges: Approaching the Carpet Fragment in the Museum,鈥 Symposium to Celebrate History of Art and Architecture Professor Walter Denny鈥檚 Scholarship in Islamic Art, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 21 October 2023
鈥淔ragmented Histories: A Deccani Carpet in the Chehel Sotun,鈥 Association for the 91制片厂 of Persianate Societies Biennial Convention, Yerevan, Armenia, 30 May鈥3 June 2023
鈥淔ragmented Histories: A Deccani Carpet in the Chehel Sotun,鈥 Postgraduate Symposium, The 91制片厂 Institute of Art, 18颅鈥19 May 2023
Farsh-ha-ye 墨ran墨 o b膩ft-e mi鈥榤膩r墨-ye anh膩听[Iranian carpets and their architectural textures] (delivered in Persian), One-day Scientific Conference on Safavid Studies, Islamic Azad University UAE Branch, Dubai, 18 April 2023
鈥淔rom Brick and Mortar to Silk and Silver: Carpeting the 士Ali Qapu Palace,鈥 Historians of Islamic Art Association Biennial Symposium, Houston, Texas, 2鈥4 March, 2023
“The Vanishing Grid: Pattern Construction in the Afshar Collection Animal Carpet,”听Symposia Iranica, St. Andrews, Scotland, April 2019
Publications
鈥淔rom Brick and Mortar to Silk and Silver: Carpeting the 士Ali Qapu Palace,鈥 in Expanding Contexts of Islamic Art听(forthcoming 2024), edited by Aim茅e Froom and Farshid Emami. New York and Leiden: Brill, 2024.
鈥淎 new home for Islamic art in Texas鈥 HALI 216 (Summer 2023), 52鈥59.
鈥淓pic Iran鈥 (exhibition review), HALI 209 (Autumn 2021), 126鈥27.
“Wine, Coffee, and Tobacco: The Pleasures of Blue-and-White in Safavid Iran,”听Arts of Asia vol. 50, issue 5 (September鈥揙ctober 2020).
Eight catalogue entries in听Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands–Selections from the Hossein Afshar Collection, edited by Aim茅e Froom. New York: Yale University Press, 2019. 56鈥57, 102鈥103, 148鈥51, 184鈥85, 200鈥201, 246鈥47, 248鈥51, 272鈥75.