I’m accepting applications for postgraduate students to work on:
- Medieval Islamic visual culture (architecture, objects, material culture)
- Digital technologies for immersive experiences of history and art
- History and games/gaming
- Museums/Cultural Heritage
- Global encounters/exchange
- Islamic visual culture, Philippines and Southeast Asia
I am especially interested in proposals from candidates whose backgrounds and/or research topics diversify the field, and proposals that fit the aims and mission of my Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections.
I supervise students in the School of History of Art’s MSc in Global Premodern Art: History, Heritage, and Curation and MPhil/PhD/MSc by Research programmes. Students who wish to apply to work with me must have a clear research proposal focused and rooted in the appropriate literature and methodologies. In preparing proposals please refer to the School of the History of Art‘s Research Application Criteria and Guidelines, available here. Information on scholarships and funding is available here (note that information on deadlines will be updated frequently).
If you are interested in applying to a PhD programme but don’t have prior training in history of art or architecture, I recommend first completing a Master’s programme with a focus on Islamic art, which will prepare you to apply at the PhD level. If you need guidance on finding a graduate/postgraduate programme in Islamic art history, I’ve written up my advice and made it freely available here. For general guidance on applying to graduate/postgraduate school see the advice on The Professor Is In blog here.
Language
Students will ideally enter with a working knowledge of Arabic (and/or Persian or other pertinent languages depending on specific research interests), along with European language(s) pertinent to their research areas. While the University of Edinburgh offers a wealth of courses and other resources for language training through Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies access is not always possible due to high demand.
Areas of Strength
Edinburgh has important collections of Islamic visual culture at the National Museum of Scotland and in the museums and special collections of the university itself.
Besides the resources available in the School of the History of Art, ECA has great strengths in History of Architecture/Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Design, Music, and Art.
Opportunities to engage in interdisciplinary research elsewhere in Edinburgh and the university are available through the following: uCreate Studio; Creative Informatics; Edinburgh Futures Institute; the History & Games Lab and the Late Antique Islamic, and Byzantine Studies (LAIBS) programme in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology (HCA); the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) programme in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LLC); and through the Alwaleed Centre.
Professional Organizations
Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA)
Middle East Medievalists (MEM)
Spain North Africa Project (SNAP)
International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA)
Society of Architectural Historians (SAH)
Association for Modern+Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran+Turkey
Middle East Studies Association (MESA)
