Upcoming and Ongoing Events

Virtual

The Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series is pleased to announce our lecture program for Fall 2026. All talks will take place on Tuesdays at 12:00 Eastern Standard/Daylight Time unless otherwise noted.

Online Lecture Series

Thursdays
Zoom

The Historians of Islamic Art Association Writing Group (HIAA Writing Group) is an accountability writing group dedicated to cultivating connections, fostering community, and supporting members in their writing endeavors. Its specific objectives include offering a niche writing environment for Islamists…

3 October 2026 – 12 September 2027

The Heart’s Desire, curated by Jessica Cerasi, explores longing in all its forms and its particular resonance within Sufi thought. Bringing together new works by six contemporary artists in dialogue with the collection of the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO (MACS MTO), the exhibition considers…

Columbia University, 612 Schermerhorn 
6:00 pm
11.05-11.05.26

Focusing on two traded goods that moved through the medieval Mediterranean—silk, and enslaved people—this lecture asks how the architecture built to house the exchange of precious goods, from the qaysariyyas in Al-Andalus to the lonja at Valencia, was shaped by the materials traded in it, the (unfree)…

Brown University, Providence
10.30-10.30.26

In this workshop, we bring together scholars working on aspects of China’s middle period to chart paths forward for our scholarship. How can we interpret signifiers of identity in medieval China broadly, and in the funerary context in particular? What are best practices for studying people largely…

In-Person and Online
The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
6:00 pm
09.28-09.28.26

Featuring Roobina Karode, Joan Kee, Ritty Lukose, Cara Manes, and Fatima Quraishi, this roundtable will consider the enduring project articulated in contemporary artist Nilima Sheikh’s statement: “The artist’s role is to bear witness—to both the past and the present.” We will use the exhibition Fractured…

University of Maryland and Walters Art Museum
9/24/2026 - 9/25/2026

How should American museums that present Islamic art engage the diasporic communities that are increasingly recognized as key public constituencies? How have these diasporic publics been constituted inside and outside institutional museums? What strategies might best encourage communities to move from…

Virtual
National Museum of Asian Art

Join the Freer Research Center at the National Museum of Asian Art for two upcoming scholarly programs celebrating the forthcoming exhibition From the Louvre: Masterpieces of Islamic Art (open September 26, 2026 – January 18, 2027). The programs are free and accessible online.

6:30 pm
09.17-09.17.26

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
6:30 pm
07.23.26

In this richly illustrated talk, Dr. Yael Rice addresses the roles that Mughal manuscript paintings, murals, and designs for translation into other media played in broadcasting the imperial court's and the artists' own aspirations. Focusing on a number of the objects displayed in the VMFA exhibition India's…

Zoom
11:00 am
06.02.26

Join us for a workshop organized by Heba Mostafa, Bermet Nishanova, and Emily Neumeier in which we will discuss how to build and sustain healthy writing habits, focusing on techniques that will generate writing quickly and are effective when getting the writing process started. At the end of the workshop,…

Cudahy Science Hall Rm 200, Loyola University Chicago, Lakeshore
5:00 pm
02.19.26

How have Islamic and Islamicate architectural forms, practices, and histories taken shape across the Americas? Join us for a book launch engaging these questions and celebrating the recent publication of Islamic & Islamicate Architecture in the Americas.

Hilton Chicago - 3rd Floor - Joliet Room and via Zoom
1:00 pm
02.19.26

Join the annual HIAA Business meeting in person at the College Art Association Conference or virtually via zoom at 1:00--2:00 pm EST.  for more information email: sec.hiaa@gmail.com

Hilton Chicago - 3rd Floor - Joliet Room
11:00 am
02.19.26

The panel sponsored by the Historians of Islamic Art Association at CAA serves as this year's Majlis symposium, featuring the latest research in Islamic art history. We invite our members to join the discussion and listen to this exciting lineup of papers

Toronto, Canada
9:00 am
09.16-09.16.25

The Aga Khan University (International) in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with the Ismaili Centre and the Aga Khan Museum, offers a face-to-face short course on Governing Diversity: Engaging with a Complex World.