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Research Faculty Current Endeavors
3. Islamic Architecture MIT’s Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, which was established in 1979 along with a sister program at Harvard, is recognized around the world as a leading academic center for the study of Islamic architecture and urbanism. Nasser Rabbat, who is the Director of the program, is a scholar of early and medieval Islamic art and architecture [see above], as well as of medieval urban history and historiography. His research focuses on Umayyad, Ayyubid and Mamluk architecture, in addition to post-colonial criticism and its ramifications for the study of architectural history. Rabbat and others teach surveys and graduate seminars on Islamic Architecture, with an emphasis on methodological and theoretical debates. James Wescoat has recently joined the AKPIA faculty to teach courses on water in environmental design in South Asia and the US, which are shaped by long term processes of development and exchange. He conducts research on the historical geography of Indo-Islamic landscapes and gardens, including a study of the Mughal-Rajput palace-garden complex in Nagaur, Rajasthan. Rabbat and others teach surveys and graduate seminars on Islamic Architecture, with an emphasis on methodological and theoretical debates. Visiting professors at AKPIA have included Mohammad al-Asad, Nebahat Avcioglu, Gulsum Baydar, Wasma’a Chorbachi, and Jerrilynn Dodds. The Aga Khan Program sponsors a lecture series, a travel grant program, and a post-doctoral program that invites between two and four scholars a year. It is engaged in regularly organizing conferences on issues related to Islamic architecture and urbanism and in pursuing collaborative projects with institutions around the world. Recent speakers have included Profs. Deborah Howard, Cambridge University; Aisha Jalal, Tufts University; Afsaneh Najmabadi, Harvard; and Thomas Leisten, Princeton University.
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