I am a PhD candidate at Columbia University, where I study material manifestations of intersecting visual cultures, identities, and faiths in the medieval Mediterranean. My dissertation traces the long historiographies of silk textiles that were attributed—or misattributed—to Muslim weavers and embroiderers in Sicily. By critically examining the centuries-long reception histories of medieval silks, I consider how modern perceptions of diversity in the medieval Mediterranean have transformed over time.
My other research projects investigate the afterlives of medieval Mediterraneanisms as they materialize in modern extremisms, histories of fashion, and neomedieval monuments. I am currently preparing my work on the Cathedral of Mogadishu (a twentieth-century rendition of a twelfth-century Sicilian cathedral) for publication in two forthcoming articles, which provide the first study of the monument and consider how its design represents the manipulation of Mediterranean history in an Italian colonial project. While specializing in medieval and modern material produced by or within Islamic societies, I have also acquired years of experience in the digital and public humanities across a wide array of institutions and organizations.
For my dissertation project, I received fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, SSRC-Mellon Mays, and the Packard Humanities Institute, among other grantors. My work on extremist appropriations of the Middle Ages has won grants from the Medieval Academy of America and RaceB4Race, and within Columbia, it was also supported by the Public Humanities Graduate Fellowship from the Society of Fellows/Heyman Center along with funding from the International Interfaith Research Lab at Teachers College, the Lehman Center Public History Project, and the Department of History.
I earned my M.Phil. in Medieval Language, Literature and Culture from Trinity College Dublin as a Mitchell Scholar, and my B.A. in art history and Italian from Northwestern University, where I studied contemporary art as a Mellon Mays Fellow. Between earning these degrees, I was Director of Education and Outreach of the nonprofit ART WORKS Projects, where I developed and contributed to photography exhibitions, film productions, and educational programming across Europe, Africa, and the Americas to amplify diverse social justice issues in collaboration with local communities.
My other research projects investigate the afterlives of medieval Mediterraneanisms as they materialize in modern extremisms, histories of fashion, and neomedieval monuments. I am currently preparing my work on the Cathedral of Mogadishu (a twentieth-century rendition of a twelfth-century Sicilian cathedral) for publication in two forthcoming articles, which provide the first study of the monument and consider how its design represents the manipulation of Mediterranean history in an Italian colonial project. While specializing in medieval and modern material produced by or within Islamic societies, I have also acquired years of experience in the digital and public humanities across a wide array of institutions and organizations.
For my dissertation project, I received fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, SSRC-Mellon Mays, and the Packard Humanities Institute, among other grantors. My work on extremist appropriations of the Middle Ages has won grants from the Medieval Academy of America and RaceB4Race, and within Columbia, it was also supported by the Public Humanities Graduate Fellowship from the Society of Fellows/Heyman Center along with funding from the International Interfaith Research Lab at Teachers College, the Lehman Center Public History Project, and the Department of History.
I earned my M.Phil. in Medieval Language, Literature and Culture from Trinity College Dublin as a Mitchell Scholar, and my B.A. in art history and Italian from Northwestern University, where I studied contemporary art as a Mellon Mays Fellow. Between earning these degrees, I was Director of Education and Outreach of the nonprofit ART WORKS Projects, where I developed and contributed to photography exhibitions, film productions, and educational programming across Europe, Africa, and the Americas to amplify diverse social justice issues in collaboration with local communities.