Selena Syed

Selena Syed is a graduate student in the Master of Science in Architecture Studies in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Art & Architecture. Before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she received her Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and Art History at Victoria College from the University of Toronto. 

Her interests span between Islamic philosophy and theology; art and architectural history; and visual and material culture, drawn from the reframing of ideas across time and space. In exploring forms of global exchange within and beyond the Islamic world, she holds particular attention to nonlinear histories and conventional geographic boundaries. 

Currently focusing on the cultures of early modern Islamic empires, her thesis examines relationships within the Ottoman world between gender, authority, and perception. More broadly, she is interested in the ways in which art and architecture act in the production of human experience, and in how medieval traditions continue to develop in modern thought and speculative futures.

At present, she holds a research assistant position with Dr. Nasser O. Rabbat. Previously, having been appointed with Dr. Hülya Arık through the Jackman Humanities Institute, contributing to digital humanities projects on Muslim artistic production and exhibition histories post-2001. 

Beyond such primary areas of research, she maintains interests in photography, feminist thought, and equestrian and animal cultures. Across these fields of inquiry, she remains interested in the persistence and pursuit of knowledge. Her scholarship has been shaped by conversations across the interdiscipline of art, architecture, history, religion, geography, and Near and Middle Eastern studies.