Kishwar Rizvi is a historian of Islamic art and architecture.  She has written on representations of religious and imperial authority in the art and architecture of Safavid Iran, as well as on issues of gender, nationalism and religious identity in modern Iran and Pakistan.  Her current research focuses on ideology and transnationalism in contemporary mosque architecture in the Middle East, for which she has been selected as a Carnegie Foundation Scholar.

Kishwar Rizvi has completed The Safavid Dynastic Shrine: History, religion and architecture in early modern Iran (London: British Institute for Persian Studies, I. B. Tauris, forthcoming 2010). Another book, co-edited with Sandy Isenstadt, Modernism and the Middle East: Architecture and politics in the twentieth century (University of Washington Press, 2008) was awarded a Graham Foundation publication grant. She has also been awarded a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for research on the 1605 Safavid "Shahnama" (Book of Kings) at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin.

She teaches undergraduate introductory surveys on Islamic art and architecture, as well as seminars on pilgrimage, gender, and representations of kingship.  Her graduate courses focus on modernism and the Middle East; Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal art and architecture; and on the artistic, cultural, and political significance of the documentary survey in Europe and the Middle East from the medieval period to the present.


Selected Publications
“Persian Pictures: Art, Documentation, and Self-Reflection in Bernard and Picart’s Representations of Islam,” in The First Global Vision of Religion: Bernard Picart’s "Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World," edited by Lynn Hunt, Margaret Jacob and Wijnand Mijnhardt, (Getty Research Institute), forthcoming 2010.

“Art,” Keywords for the Study of Islam, edited by Jamal Elias, (Oxford: One World Press), 2009.

“Sites of Pilgrimage and Objects of Devotion,” in Shah ‘Abbas: The Remaking of Iran, edited by Sheila Canby, (London: British Museum Press), publication accompanying exhibition at the British Museum, 2009. View PDF.

“Modern Architecture and the Middle East: The burden of representation,” Modernism and the Middle East: Architecture and politics in the twentieth century, co-editor, (University of Washington Press) 2008. View PDF.

“Art History and the Nation: Arthur Upham Pope and the discourse on ‘Persian Art’ in the early 20th century,” Muqarnas: Journal of Islamic Art and Architecture, vol 24, (2007).

“Religious Icon and National Symbol: The Tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran,” Muqarnas: Journal of Islamic Art and Architecture, vol 20, (2003). View PDF.

“Gendered Patronage: Women and Benevolence in Safavid Architecture,” Women, Patronage, and Self-Representation in Islamic Societies, ed. D. F. Ruggles, (SUNY: New York), 2000. View PDF.

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