Stephennie Mulder
Associate professor Department of Art and Art History | department of middle eastern studies The university of texas at austin email: [email protected]
EDUCATION
June 2008 Ph.D., History of Art, University of Pennsylvania Islamic Art and Architecture
June 2001 M.A., Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
June 1997 B.A., Anthropology, Middle East Studies minor, University of Utah
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2015-present Associate Professor of Art History Department of Art and Art History – Department of Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin Affiliation: Center for Middle Eastern Studies
2008-2015 Assistant Professor of Art History Department of Art and Art History – Department of Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin Affiliation: Center for Middle Eastern Studies
2000-2010 Archaeological Ceramicist Princeton University/Syrian Department of Antiquities Excavations at Balis, Syria
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS
Books and Edited Volumes
The Shrines of the ‘Alids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shi’is, and the Architecture of Coexistence. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014; 320 pp., first hardback run sold out, reissued in paperback, 2019.
“Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamic Societies,” guest editor for special issue, International Journal of Islamic Architecture 6:2 (June 2017).
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Books in Progress
Ceramics of Balis. A two-volume analytical study of ceramic material from Princeton University’s excavations at medieval Balis, Syria, including separate studies on two little- known categories: molded ceramics and Umayyad (early Islamic) ceramics. The study will publish four to five analytical chapters and nearly 1,000 drawings and photographs from my research at medieval Balis, and will be among the first major studies of Islamic unglazed ceramics. (In preparation).
Imagining Antiquity in Islamic Societies (edited volume on the role of the heritage of classical antiquity in Islamic societies - an expansion of my IJIA special issue with seven additional articles. In preparation for publication summer 2020).
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
“Beeshu’s Laugh: The Arts of Satire in the Syrian Uprising.” Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 11 (June 2018), 174-195.
“Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamic Societies,” editorial essay, International Journal of Islamic Architecture 6: 2 (June 2017), 229-254.
“A Survey and Typology of Islamic Molded Ware (9th – 13th centuries) based on the discovery of a Potter’s Workshop at Medieval Balis, Syria.” Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 1.2 (2014), 143-192.
“Abdülhamid and the ‘Alids: Ottoman patronage of ‘Shi‘i’ shrines in the Cemetery of Bab al- Saghir in Damascus.” Studia Islamica, 108:16-47 (2013).
“The Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi’i.” Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World, 23: 15-46 (2006).
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
“Chapter 4: War and Recovery.” Bethany Walker, ed.; Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, 30 pp.
“No, People in the Middle East Haven’t Been Fighting Since the Beginning of Time.” Nina Rowe et al., eds., Whose Middle Ages? A Reader. New York: Fordham University Press, 2019, 127-139.
“Seeing the Light: Enacting the Divine at Three Medieval Syrian Shrines.” David Roxburgh, ed., Envisioning Islamic Architecture: Essays Honoring Renata Holod. Leiden: Brill, 2014, 89- 109.
Mosques Under the Ayyubids” in The Cambridge History of World Religious Architecture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (In press; accepted for publication 2011, publication delayed by press).
2 “Shrines in the Central Islamic Lands.” The Cambridge History of World Religious Architecture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 9,500 words (48 pp.). (In press; accepted for publication 2011, publication delayed by press).
“Jar Stoppers, Seals, and Lids.” S.E. Sidebotham – W.Z. Wendrich (eds). Berenike 1999-2000. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, 270-284 (2007).
“Trench BE0033.” S.E. Sidebotham – W.Z. Wendrich (eds). Berenike 1999-2000. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, 50-54 (2007).
Reviews
Review of Heghnar Watenpaugh, The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript from Genocide to Justice (Stanford University Press, 2019), CAA Reviews (2019).
Review Essay, Rivers of Paradise: Water in Islamic Art and Culture. Edited by Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). Journal of the American Oriental Society, 131.4: 646-50 (2011).
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
Project title: The Ceramics of Balis: Toward a Comprehensive Typology of Unglazed Islamic Pottery (in progress)
VPR Research & Creative Grant 2019-20, Vice President for Research, UT Austin
Barakat Trust Major Award, 2017-2018
Archaeological Institute of America - German Archaeological Institute (DAI) Fellowship for Study in Berlin, 2017- 2018
International Research Fellowship, Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2017
Faculty Research Assignment, College of Fine Arts, The University of Texas at Austin, 2017
Supplemental College Research Fellowship, College of Liberal Arts, 2017
Summer Research Assignment, College of Fine Arts, The University of Texas at Austin, 2017
George A. Barton Fellowship, Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, (declined), 2008
Project title: The Shrines of the ‘Alids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shi’is and the Architecture of Coexistence (Edinburgh University Press, 2014)
World Prize for Book of the Year from the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2015
3 ALA Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title, 2015
Syrian Studies Association Book Prize, 2015
University of Texas Hamilton Book Award Grand Prize, 2015
John D. Murchison Fellowship in Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts, 2013
University of Texas Co-op Subvention Grant, 2013-2014
Summer Research Assignment, College of Fine Arts, 2013
College Research Fellowship, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, 2011
John D. Murchison Fellowship in Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts, 2010
Summer Research Assignment, College of Fine Arts, 2009
John D. Murchison Fellowship in Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts, 2008
Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education, 2004-2005
Kolb Society of Fellows, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2002-present
TEACHING AWARDS
Junior Faculty Fellow, The University of Texas Society for Teaching Excellence, 2014- present
Nominee, Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, Department of Art and Art History, 2012
Department of Art and Art History Teaching Excellence Award, 2009
Nominee, Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship, 2008
SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS
Conference Presentations (peer-reviewed)
April 2021 “Toward a Global Islamic Art for an Interconnected World” Historians of Islamic Art Association Meetings, online April 15-17, 2020.
October 2020 “Promoting Public Scholarship in Middle East History” Middle East Studies Association Meetings, online October 6, 2020. Panel organizer and participant.
4 October 2020 “The Future of Islamic Art” Middle East Studies Association Meetings, online October 5, 2020.
April 2020 “The Ceramics of Balis: Toward the Recovery of Lost Heritage” Society for American Archaeology Meetings, Austin, TX, April 22-26, 2020 (CANCELLED)
April 2020 “Framing Architecture at the End of the First Millennium” Framing the First Millennium Conference, University of Maryland, April 16-18, 2020 (CANCELLED)
October 2019 “The Shrine of al-Husayn in Aleppo” International Conference Re- Presented Pasts: Uses and Re-Uses of the Past in Pre-Modern Islam. Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society, Leiden, The Netherlands, Oct 10-11, 2019.
May 2019 “The Wisdom in Ruins: Veneration of the Material Past in the Medieval Islamic World” Symposium Antiquarianism in the Islamic World. Bard Graduate Center, New York, May 9-10, 2019.
April 2019 “People of the Prophet’s House: The Role of the ‘Alid Shrines in Medieval Syria’s Sacred Landscape” Death and Dying in Medieval Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Marco Institute Annual Research Symposium, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, April 5-6, 2019
December 2017 Keynote speaker, International Conference Material Culture Methods in the Middle Islamic Periods, Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg, University of Bonn, December 7-10, 2017.
November 2017 “Some Remarks on Private and Public Art Crime and Trade in Times of War” Conference The Global Power of Private Museums: Arts and Publics – States and Markets. Forum Kunst und Markt / Centre for Art Market Studies, Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und Historische Urbanistik, Berlin, Nov. 16-18, 2017.
November 2016 “Local or Universal? Imagining Antiquity and its Localities in Islamic Societies.” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting [MESA] Nov. 18, 2016, Boston, MA
November 2015 “Cultural Heritage Destruction: Evidence and Emergency Responses in Syria, Iraq, and Libya.” Panel discussant. Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting [MESA] Nov. 24, 2015, Denver, CO.
February 2015 “Abdulhamid and the ‘Alids: Ottoman patronage of Shi’i Shrines in the Cemetery of Bab al-Saghir in Damascus.” College Art Association Annual Conference New York, February 2015.
November 2013 “’May God be pleased with all the Companions of His Prophet’: Sunni Patronage of Shi’i Shrines in Medieval Aleppo,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting [MESA], New Orleans, LA.
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July 2013 “’Beseech God Almighty on this Land, and I will Bear Witness for You’: Christians, Muslims, and the Generation of Sacred Topography in Medieval Syria,” Trade, Travel and Transmission in the Medieval Mediterranean, Churchill College, Cambridge University, UK.
April 2010 “Seeing the Light: Polyvalent Iconographies at Three Medieval Syrian Shrines,” British Association of Art Historians Annual Meeting [AAH], Glasgow, Scotland.
March 2009 “Shrines of the Prophet’s House: the Role of the ‘Alid Shrines in Medieval Syria’s Sacred Landscape,” People of the Prophet’s House: Art, Architecture and Shi’ism in the Islamic World, The British Museum and the Institute of Isma’ili Studies, London, UK.
November 2007 “Eclectic Ecumenism: Sunnis and Shi'is as Patrons of the 'Alid Shrines in Damascus,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting [MESA], Montréal, Quebec.
November 2007 “Sharing Sanctity: Veneration of the Family of the Prophet as Non- Sectarian Social Praxis,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting [MESA], Montréal, Quebec. (Panel organizer.)
April 2007 “On Molds and Markets: What Islamic Molded Ceramics Say about Medieval Trade and Taste,” Conference for opening of the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.
February 2007 “Reinventing the ahl al-bayt: Shi’ite Shrines and Sunni Patrons in Medieval Aleppo,” College Art Association Annual Conference [CAA], New York, NY.
November 2001 “Molded Wares from Medieval Balis, Syria: a New Typology and Diagnostic Tool for Dating Islamic Archaeological Sites,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting [MESA], San Francisco, CA.
Invited Lectures
May 2021 “Medieval Cenotaphs as Ornament for the Sacred” International conference Ritual Objects in the Medieval Middle East, online Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, May 24-27, 2021.
March 2021 “Shrines for Saints and Sahaba: The patronage of Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid in the Cemetery of Bab al-Saghir, Damascus.” Seminar Yusuf al-Nabhani and Conservative Modernity in the Late Ottoman Period, New York University’s Silsila: Center for Material Histories lecture series, March 5, 2021.
March 2021 “Teaching with Wikipedia: A Practical Guide.” Open Texas Conference, online March 11-12, 2021.
6 February 2021 “Saving the Past for the People: A Critique of the ‘Universal’ Heritage Model.” University of Oxford, U.K., online February 1, 2021.
November 2020 “How the Vikings ‘got Allah’: Toward an Integrated Medieval Studies in an Age of White Nationalism.” The York Medieval Lecture, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, U.K. November 5, 2020.
October 2020 “From Renaissance to Renaissances: toward a new paradigm in Art History.” Symposium Whose Renaissance?: Re-Imagining the Early Modern World in the Age of White Supremacy, invited co-panelist with Nick Jones, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Art, History, and Design. October 29, 2020.
July 2020 "Contested Codices: The Legal, Ethical, & Moral Ramifications for the Sale of Islamic Manuscripts Today." The Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar, organized by students at Harvard University co-presenting with Yael Rice, Amherst College.
June 2020 “Sacred Landscapes in Medieval Islam” book launch for Daniella Talmon-Heller’s Sacred Place and Sacred Time in the Medieval Islamic Middle East, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, June 16, 2020.
May 2020 “Teaching the Middle Ages with Inclusivity and Diversity” Roundtable Discussion, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 7-10, 2020 (CANCELLED)
February 2019 “War and Recovery.” Freer|Sackler Museum, Culture at Risk: Yemen’s Heritage under Threat. Washington, D.C., February 23, 2019.
February 2019 Chester Beatty Annual Lecture. “The Architecture of Coexistence: The Shrines of the ‘Alids in Medieval Syria.” The Chester Beatty, Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland, February 7, 2019.
May 2018 “Saving the Past for the People: A Critique of the ‘Universal’ Heritage Model.” Victoria & Albert Museum, London, May 3, 2018.
“Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamic Societies.” Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, U.K., May 2, 2018.
“Bilderfahrzeuge in the Twittersphere: The Viking “Allah” Saga and the Future of the Image.” The Warburg Institute, London, May 1, 2018.
March 2018 “Saving the Past for the People: A Critique of the ‘Universal’ Heritage Model.” German Archaeological Institute, Berlin, March 1, 2018.
April 2017 “Saving Syria’s Past: Local Heroes of Wartime Heritage Preservation.” UNICEF Benefit, Houston, TX, April 24, 2017.
7 November 2016 “The Limits of ‘Universal’ Heritage: Islam and the Preservation of the Past.” Rice University, Houston, TX, Nov. 10, 2016.
March 2016 "Making ISIS Medieval: Contemporary Responses to the Crisis of Heritage Destruction in Syria and Iraq" Burke Lecture, Indiana University, April 15, 2016.
February 2016 “A Heritage in Peril: Saving the Past in the Cradle of Civilization.” Lecture, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, February 24, 2016.
September 2015 “Medieval Muslims and the Past: Imagining and Embracing Antiquity before ISIS.” Conference Erasing the Past: Da’esh and the Crisis of Antiquities Destruction, Wellesley College, September 24, 2015.
February 2015 “Creating an Islamic Holy Land: The Growth of ‘Alid shrines in 12th century Syria,” Symposium Religious Boundaries and their Maintenance in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Pomona College, February 20-21, 2015.
July 2014 “Islamic Miniature Painting” McNay Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX.
April 2014 “’May God be pleased with all the Companions of His Prophet’: Christians, Muslims, and the Generation of Sacred Topography in Medieval Syria,” invited paper at the conference Place Memory, Place Politics: Cultural Perspectives on the Local and Locality, Donald D. Harrington Workshop, Departments of Middle East Studies and Religious Studies, University of Texas at Austin.
November 2013 “Beeshu’s Laugh: The Arts of Satire in the Syrian Uprising,” invited paper at symposium “Arts of the Arab World Uprisings,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
May 2012 “Sharing in Piety: Sunnis and Shi’is as Patrons of the ‘Alid Shrines in Damascus” Conference “Shrines of Ahl al-Bayt: Architecture, Ritual, Representation, and Education,” New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
April 2011 “Word, Image, and Symbol in the Fatimid Architecture of Cairo.” Sponsored by His Highness Prince Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for the Southwestern United States, Ismaili Jamatkhana and Center, Sugar Land, TX.
March 2011 “Miniatures for an Epic: 1001 Years of Persian Painting in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.” Sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies in cooperation with His Highness Prince Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for the Southwestern United States, University of Texas at Austin.
November 2010 “Image/Writing? Questioning the Role of Iconography in Islamic Art and Architecture” conference “Where Does the Field of Islamic Art
8 Stand Today?” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
November 2010 Co-organizer of workshop “Where Does the Field of Islamic Art Stand Today?” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, organized by myself and Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan professor of Architecture at MIT.
November 2009 “Image and Iconography: the case of Medieval Syrian Shrines” Seminar for Late Antiquity, University of Texas at Austin.
October 2009 “Seeing the Light: Polyvalent Iconographies at Three Medieval Syrian Shrines,” Conference Seeing the Past-Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
May 2009 “A Clay Cup for thy Drink Assign: Medieval Islamic Molded Ceramics,” San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX.
April 2009 “Persian Painting and Shahnameh Illustrations,” Conference Ferdowsi 1000 Years, The University of Texas at Austin.
April 2008 “On Molds and Markets: What Islamic Molded Ceramics Say about Medieval Trade and Taste,” Archaeological Institute of America, Austin, TX.
Invited Discussant
November 2015 Panel “Cultural Heritage Destruction: Evidence and Emergency Responses in Syria, Iraq, and Libya.” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meetings, November 24, 2015, Denver, CO.
April 2012 University of North Texas Graduate Student Symposium, “Nature and the Natural in the Middle Ages,” Dallas, TX and Denton, TX.
Invited Fellowship Participant
2014-2015 Public Voices Fellowship, The Op-Ed Project: a selective, year-long initiative sponsored by the University of Texas to train women and minority faculty in becoming public intellectuals.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Service to the Profession
2019-present President, Middle East Medievalists
2019-present Junior Member-at-Large, Syrian Studies Association
2018 Middle East Medievalists Dissertation Prize Committee
9 2017-present Advisory Board member, The Muslim World in the Age of the Crusades, a Brill series focused on studying the impact of the Crusades on the Islamic world.
2015-present Founder of UT Antiquities Action, a cultural heritage-related education and activist group with an international profile. We sponsor an ongoing series of monthly lectures, film screenings, and meetings related to cultural heritage issues and organize an annual spring symposium with an invited keynote speaker and 8-10 speakers. We live-stream and archive our symposium on our active Facebook page to ensure accessibility to a broad audience.
2015-2017 Syrian Studies Association Book Prize Committee
2015-present Editorial Board member, al-Usur al-Wusta: Journal of the Middle East Medievalists
2015-present Board Member, SAFE: Saving Antiquities For Everyone
2015-present Board Member, ASOR’s Syrian Heritage Initiative, which aims to catalogue and track losses to Syrian archaeological and heritage sites during the Syrian conflict. Founded by the American Society of Oriental Research (ASOR) with the support of the U.S. Department of State.
2014-present Expert Consultant for Islamic Monuments, Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria Initiative, an NSF-funded project to identify and catalog wartime heritage losses in Syria and provide immediate in-country assistance to Syrian archaeologists and museum workers. The project is a joint initiative of the Smithsonian Institution, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Cultural Heritage Center.
2013-present Peer reviewer for the International Journal of Islamic Architecture
2010-2013 Board Member, Historians of Islamic Art Association
2010-2013 List Serve Editor for H-Islamart (email list serve of the main professional organization in my field, responsible for evaluation, editing, and posting of multiple daily submissions)
Service to the University and Local Community
2008-present Numerous yearly university service appointments, including several years as graduate adviser and admissions chair and service on the Provost’s Task Force for the Future of UT Libraries, full list upon request.
Media Interviews, Op-Eds, Articles, and Social Media Outreach
2020 “Christie’s Defends Sales of Cultural Artifacts” The Telegraph August 30, 2020 (interviewed by journalist but not directly quoted).
10 “The Sale of a Rare, Gold-painted Qur’an at Christie’s Raises Questions of Provenance” Hyperallergic, August 5, 2020 (quoted).
“The Mystery of the Timurid Qur’an.” Prospect Magazine, July 22, 2020 (with Yael Rice).
“Ousting Foreign Students is Cruel and it Deprives the U.S.” Austin-American Statesman, July 14, 2020 (with Charlotte Canning).
Reached 10K followers on Twitter, July 11, 2020.
“Quran quietly sells for record £7m despite questions over its provenance.” The Art Newspaper, July 6, 2020 (quoted).
“De Ayasofya weer een moskee: wat zou dat betekenen? (The Hagia Sophia Again a Mosque: What would that Mean?)” (quoted) Dutch Newspaper Trouw, July 2, 2020.
Managed the @Tweetistorian handle on Twitter May 24-30, 2020. Produced six long threads on Islamic art, one of which received over 140K views and nearly 1,000 likes, setting a new record for the handle.
“The Future of Islamic Art” Leiden Islamic Studies Instagram Live (record- breaking 800+ views), May 15, 2020.
“History Shows What’s Wrong With the Idea That War Is ‘Normal’ in the Middle East” Time, January 14, 2020.
“Trump's threats against Iranian cultural sites may unite Iran more than Soleimani's death” USA Today, January 8, 2020.
BBC Radio 5 Interview on Trump’s Targeting of Iran’s Cultural Sites. Rhod Sharp, Up All Night, Jan. 7, 2020.
“If Donald Trump orders the bombing of Iranian cultural sites, would it be a war crime?” Interview in Politifact, January 6, 2020.
2019 “On Yom Kippur, Remembering Mosul’s Rich and Diverse Past” PRI’s The World, October 8, 2019.
“Separating Fact from Fiction in Islamic Art: Stephennie Mulder aims to expand the usual ‘European story’ and outlook on art history,” Aidan Dunne, interview in the Irish Times, Feb. 12, 2019.
“The Architecture of Coexistence: The Shrines of the Alids in Medieval Syria", the Chester Beatty Annual Lecture 2019. Interview on RTÉ Arena (Irish Public Radio): February 6, 2019.
“Students Transform Public Knowledge of Islamic Art on Wikipedia.” UT Austin Department of Art & Art History News, January 31, 2019
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2018 “How Much is Our History Worth? Lessons from Brazil’s National Museum Fire” (with Adele Nelson), UT News, The University of Texas at Austin, September 2018.
“What Can be Done to Protect Cultural Heritage?” Khan Academy and Smarthistory’s ARCHES (At Risk Cultural Heritage Education Series), March 2018.
“Cultural heritage ‘in Crisis.’” Co-authored with Debora Trein. Khan Academy and Smarthistory’s ARCHES (At Risk Cultural Heritage Education Series), March 2018.
2017 “Buyer Beware: Looted Objects Flood Online Sites like Amazon, Facebook” Interview in The Wall Street Journal, Nov 1, 2017.
“The Rise and Fall of the Viking Allah Textile” Hyperallergic, October 27, 2017.
My Twitter thread debunking the Uppsala University “Viking Allah” textile went viral. As a result of my thread, major media outlets changed their stories or wrote new ones: including The Guardian, The Independent, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Gizmodo, ArtNet. October 16, 2017.
“Understanding Mosul’s Rich History and What IS Destroyed” op-ed in The Conversation, September 2017.
2016 “Shrines for Saints and Sultans: On the destruction of local heritage sites by ISIS” Archaeology Today (Turkish popular archaeology magazine), June 2016.
“That Wasn’t a Maya Lost City, Just Another Example of the Culture of Hype.” Op-ed, Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2016.
“Museum of Lost Objects.” BBC Radio 4, March 2016. Consulting scholar.
“ISIS in Context.” KUT Views and Brews at the Cactus Café, March 29, 2016.
2015 “Subverting the Script: ‘Homeland’ Graffiti Artists Use Same Techniques as Native Americans.” Op-ed co-written with Erika Bsumek, Huffington Post, Oct. 26, 2015.
2015 “Islamic State Temple Destruction: 'Palmyra Represents Everything ISIS Would Like to Destroy'” International Business Times Interview, August 27, 2015.
2015 “Destruction of the Temple of Baal Shamin at Palmyra, Syria.” Al-Jazeera English Interview, April 2015.
2015 “ISIS Takeover of Palmyra.” BBC Radio 4 News Interview, April 15, 2015
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2015 “Act of propaganda, heritage terror: ISIS destroying artifacts to show mastery of past.” RT Television News Interview, March 26, 2015
2015 “Extremism at Home: Duke’s Muslim Call to Prayer Reversal was a Victory for American Intolerance.” Op-Ed for Us News and World Report, Jan. 21, 2015.
2014 “The blood antiquities funding ISIL: Sale of Antiquities Now Being Formally Taxed by Group, and Constitutes Reliable Revenue Stream after Oil” Op-Ed for al-Jazeera, Nov. 12, 2014.
2014 “The Secret History of the Middle East.” Op-ed for US News and World Report, Oct. 1, 2014.
2014 “Carved in Stone: What Architecture can Tell Us about the Sectarian History of Islam,” article and interview for NOT EVEN PAST, the University of Texas at Austin’s public history project
2012 “Dear Syria, Save Damascus’ Old City,” interview by Graeme Wood for The New Republic
2006 “Shi’ites and Shi’ism in Medieval Syria,” article on Syria Comment, the premier blog on Syrian politics and history, invited by Syria expert Joshua Landis.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Archaeological Institute of America [AIA]
Syrian Studies Association [SSA]
College Art Association [CAA]
Historians of Islamic Art Association [HIAA]
Middle East Studies Association [MESA]
Middle East Medievalists [MEM]
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