CV

Education

2000 – 2009: Dr. phil. (magna cum laude, 'with distinction') Islamic Art History and Archaeology, Department of the History of Art, Free University of Berlin. Dissertation: The Dragon: Evolution of an Iconography in Central Asia and Beyond. Advisor: Prof. Dr. Claus-Peter Haase
1998 – 1999: M.A. History of Art and Archeology, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Dissertation: Sufi Brotherhoods in Anatolia and Their Iconographic Representations in Islamic Art and Archeology
1988 – 1991: B.A.S. (Bachelor of Arts and Sciences) Chinese, Korean and Japanese Art and Archaeology, International Christian University (ICU), Tokyo; second degree in Macroeconomics, International Christian University (ICU), Tokyo; Monbusho Scholarship, Japanese Government Scholarship Program (Monbu-kagaku-shō)

Academic Career, Prizes, Fellowships, and Awards

2021 – 2022: Research Fellowship of the Academy for Islam in Science and Society (AIWG) at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Research Project "Contemporary Art and Sufi Aesthetics in European Context", funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Stiftung Mercator (Project 3309010003)
2018 – 2020: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, Research Project “The Visual Culture of Sufism in France and in Germany” (SufiVisual), funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) under Horizon 2020-EU.1.3.2. – Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility / European Commission (Project ID: 794958)
2018 – 2020: Institut d’ethnologie méditerranéenne, européenne et comparative (IDEMEC) / Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Aix-Marseille Université. Research Fellow
2019 – 2020: Winter Semester; Secondment in the framework of SufiVisual: Centre for Islamic Theology (ZITh), University of Tübingen. Research Fellow
Since 2017: Department of Islamic Theological Studies, University of Vienna. Lecturer
2017: National Museum of Ethnology (MINPAKU), Osaka; collaboration in exhibition "Trans-regional Migrations of Monster Motifs. Between Europe, West Asia, and East Asia", scheduled for 2022 at the National Museum of Ethnology (MINPAKU), Osaka, Japan. Overseas Visiting Fellow
2016 – 2017: Research Project "The Visual Culture of Sufism in Vienna: Ways of Viewing in the Mystical Islam of the Chishti-Inayati and the Halveti-Jerrahi" funded by the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna, Promotion of Science and Research (MA7 – 1007867/16), Department of Religious Studies, University of Vienna. Research Fellow
2017: Erasmus+ Teaching Staff Mobility Program for teaching assignments funded by the European Commission, University of Aberdeen
2016: The Nantes Institute for Advanced Study. Research Fellow
2015: Institute for Advanced Study of Aix-Marseille University – AMU (IMéRA), Marseille. Research Fellow
2015 – 2018: Department of Religious Studies, University of Vienna. Lecturer
2013 – 2014: The European Institutes for Advanced Study Fellowship Program (EURIAS) / Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship as part of the EU-funded project EU-Institutions for Advanced Study Fellowship Program (EU-IAS-FP), NEC-Institute for Advanced Study, Bucharest. Junior Fellow; continuation of field research in the Dobruja, Romania, and the Crimea, Ukraine
2013: 20th Joint World Prize for the Book of the Year of the Islamic Republic of Iran, issued by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for The Dragon in Medieval East Christian and Islamic Art. Leiden: Brill, 2011
2013: Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF), London. Research Grant
2012 – 2013: Orient-Institut Beirut der Max Weber Stiftung (OIB), Beirut; Postdoctoral Research Fellow
2012: London Academy of Iranian Studies (LAIS). Grant for continuation of field research in Central and Southeastern Europe. Postdoctoral Research Fellow
2011 – 2012: Austrian Research Foundation. Grant for pilot study and fieldwork on the visual and material culture of Sufism in Central and Southeastern Europe (Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Novi Pazar Sandžak in Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, the Dobruja, Romania, and the Crimea, Ukraine). Postdoctoral Research Fellow
2009 – 2011: Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Vienna. Curatorial documentation and research of the holdings of the Islamic textiles and costumes, Textiles and Carpets Collection
1998 – 2009: UNESCO / UNDP. Evaluation of museum collections, curatorial as well as other consulting activities; resulting in regular missions to the Middle East (at least five times per year for a period of six to eight weeks each). This allowed for extensive fieldwork, acquaintance with monuments and museums, and establishment of a comprehensive photographic database on various themes related to art and archaeology in the Mediterranean World (the Balkan Peninsula, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Spain, France, and Italy), Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia), the Indian Subcontinent (Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh), the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan), and the Far East (China, Japan and Korea)
1998 – 2009: Kuwait National Museum, Dār al-Athār al-Islāmiyyah (Al-Sabāh Collection), Kuwait; curatorial documentation and cataloguing of a wide range of artefacts

Collaboration in Museum Exhibitions

2022: Shared Sacred Spaces Exhibition, Museum of Ethnology (Weltmuseum), Vienna
2021: Paylaşılan Kutsal Mekânlar / Shared Sacred Spaces Exhibition in Ankara, Anadolu Kültür, in collaboration with the French Institute and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, at Cermodern Ankara, 4 May–4 July, 2021
2019: Paylaşılan Kutsal Mekânlar / Shared Sacred Spaces Exhibition in Istanbul, Anadolu Kültür, in collaboration with the French Institute and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, at DEPO İstanbul, Tophane, 20 April–14 July 2019. The "Shared Sacred Spaces" project highlights the multisensory experience of pilgrimage, as seen through the lens of the three major Abrahamic religions
2017: Confluence of Faiths: Shared Sacred Spaces Exhibition in the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Photography Thessaloniki, and Yeni Cami, 23 September–31 December 2017 as well as the 2017 Thessaloniki Biennale, 30 September 2017–14 January 2018
Since 2017: "Trans-regional Migrations of Monster Motifs, between Europe, West Asia, and East Asia", exhibition scheduled for 2022, National Museum of Ethnology (MINPAKU), Osaka, Japan
Since 2016: Research for facsimile publication and collaboration in 2018 Anniversary Exhibition of the Kitāb al-diryāq A.F.10, Austrian National Library Vienna
2014 – 2015: Lieux saints partagés / Shared Sacred Spaces exhibition in the MuCEM (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations), Marseille, 29 April–31 August 2015
2009 – 2011: Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Vienna
1998 – 2008: UNESCO / UNDP
1998 – 2008: Kuwait National Museum, Dār al-Athār al-Islāmiyyah (DAI)

For further information, please refer to the curriculum vitae.

To top