Islamic Art Studies

Dr. Mahnaz Shayestehfar is the Managing Director of the Institute of Islamic Art Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Art from the University of Birmingham, UK, is an Associate Professor at Tarbiat Modares University, and is the Director of Islamic Culture, and Art Studies. She has been as director of the Department of Islamic Art at Tarbiat Modares University and has supervised more than 30 master's theses. Dr. Shayestehfar has been the managing director and editor-in-chief of two science-research quarterly journals on Islamic art studies since 2004. She has published more than 200 articles in domestic and foreign journals and has participated in dozens of domestic and foreign conferences. Membership on the editorial board of 4 scientific-research journals, editor and managing director of two journals, scientific secretary of the Quranic Art Conference, managing director of the Center for Islamic Art Research, drawing, translating and writing 16 books can be mentioned in his research record. Also, during the last two decades, about 20 projects in the field of management, Iranian-Islamic art and culture and handicrafts, culture, and civilization of Iran and the Islamic world have been completed.

Mohammad Khazaei was born in 1962; He has a PhD in Graphic Design(Islamic Art and Design) from Birmingham University, UK, 1997. Dr. Khazaei is associate professor and as a member of the academic board of Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran since 1999.

The publication of two ISI articles, over 12 scientific-research essays, and also 42 articles in scientific-promotional periodicals can be seen in Dr. Khazaie’s resume. Khazaei also participated in many art events as the leading judge such as the Ashura Poster, 2007; The Tenth Biannual of Tehran’s Poster, 2009; and many other cultural and artistic events.

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Farideh Afarin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art Research at the Faculty of Art, Semnan University. She holds a Ph.D. in Art Research from Alzahra University and has extensive experience in teaching courses related to art and aesthetics at various academic levels. Her research interests include aesthetics, contemporary art, film analysis, and miniature painting. Afarin has authored numerous publications and articles in domestic and international journals and has actively participated in national and international conferences. She was also recognized as the top researcher at the Faculty of Art and Architecture, Semnan University, in 2019 and 2020.

Professor Bloom teaches courses on the history of Islamic art and architecture. He also offers undergraduate seminars on such subjects as the arts of medieval Spain and the history of Cairo. His research has explored the history and development of the minaret, the history of paper, and the art of the Fatimid dynasty in North Africa and Egypt.

Professor Blair teaches about all aspects of Islamic art from the seventh century to modern times. She offers surveys on Islamic art, architecture, and urbanism, as well as research seminars on the Silk Road, the Islamic book, and the arts of the object. Her research is equally broad: she has written or co-written 17 books, including several international award winners, and more than 200 articles in journals, encyclopedias, colloquia, and festschriften. Several of her books were written with her husband and co-holder of the Calderwood Chair, Jonathan Bloom.

Adel T. Adamova received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (The Academy of Fine Arts) in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She is currently curator of Persian Art in the Oriental Department of the State Hermitage Museum. She is the author of three monographs and more than thirty articles, mainly on Persian painting.

Bernard O'Kane is Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at The American University in Cairo, where he has been teaching since 1980. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley. He has authored several books including The Mosques of Egypt, The Illustrated Guide to the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, Timurid Architecture in Khurasan and The Ultimate Book of Mosques.

Research fieldsHistory of Art in Iran-Central Asia; ceramic and architectural decor; Timurid and Turkmen arts (qarâ qoyunlu & q qoyunlu).

Viola Allegranzi is research fellow at the Institute of Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2020-). In 2017, she received a joint Ph.D. from the Universities Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 and “L’Orientale” di Napoli, with a dissertation devoted to the Persian inscriptions from Ghazni (Afghanistan) and the cultural history of the Ghaznavid period (11th-12th century). Her research focuses on monumental epigraphy, inscribed objects, and architectural decoration from the Persianate zone (8th to 14th century). She has a special interest in the intersection between archaeological and textual sources, in particular medieval historiography, and Persian literature. She is the author of the monograph Aux sources de la poésie ghaznavide. Les inscriptions persanes de Ghazni (Paris, 2019) and co-editor of the volume Texts and Contexts. Ongoing Research on the Eastern Iranian World (Roma, 2020).

Dr. Khairudin Aljunied (PhD SOAS, London) is a tenured Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is concurrently a Senior Fellow (formerly and Professor as well as Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia at the Alwaleed Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University). He has held visiting full professorships at Columbia University, USA (Fulbright Program) in 2013, University of Brunei Darussalam in 2021-2022 and the University of Malaya in 2022-2023. In 2024, he is listed as one of the 500 influential Muslims in the world in 2024: https://themuslim500.com

A recognized specialist in the field of intellectual history, Khairudin Aljunied’s research focuses on the connections between Southeast Asia and Global Islam. He is the author and editor of thirteen books and more than thirty internationally refereed articles. Recent publications include Muslim Cosmopolitanism: Southeast Asian Islam in Comparative Perspective (Edinburgh University Press, 2017), Hamka and Islam: Cosmopolitan Reform in the Malay World (Cornell University Press, 2018), Islam in Malaysia: An Entwined History (Oxford University Press, 2019), and Shapers of Islam in Southeast Asia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022). His upcoming book is entitled Contemplating Sufism: Dialogue and Tradition Across Southeast Asia (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2024).