Sussan Babaie

Sussan Babaie joined The Courtauld Institute of Art in 2013 to take up a newly established post teaching on the arts of Iran and Islam. Born in Iran, Sussan attended the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Fine Arts (Graphic Design) until the revolution of 1979 when she moved to the USA to study for a Master’s degree in Italian Renaissance and American Arts, followed by a PhD at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, where she focused on the arts of Islam. She has many years of experience teaching at Smith College and the University of Michigan in America, and as the Allianz Visiting Professor at the Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Ludwig Maximilian University, in Munich.  Sussan has served on the International Advisory Board of Art History.

Her exhibitions include the guest-curated Strolling in Isfahan, at the Sackler Museum of Harvard University (2010), and two exhibitions she curated with her undergraduate students at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (installation, 2002-2006), and at Smith College Museum of Art (1998). While she was a graduate student fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she co-curated and co-wrote the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’ (1989). She has consulted on Persian and Islamic arts with the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, and the Detroit Institute of Art.

Her research interests include the early modern Safavid period with topics on urbanism and empire studies, on sexuality and social habits of ‘seeing’, and on transcultural visuality and notions of exoticism. A university-trained graphic designer, she writes and lectures on the historiography of the global contemporary and its implications for the arts of Iran and the Middle East. Most recently, her research has been supported by grants from the United States National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright (for research in Egypt and Syria) and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.

Sussan is the Head of Admissions at The Courtauld Institute of Art during the academic years 2014-15 and 2015-16.

• BA History of Art Year 1: Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals
• BA History of Art Year 2: Power and Patronage: Buildings, Books and the Courtly Arts for the House of Timur
• MA History of Art: Persian Painting and Transcultural Visuality from the Mongols to the Safavids (14^th to 17^th Centuries)
• MA History of Art: Strolling Isfahan: Masters, Merchants and Monarchs

2017    Nowruz, Feasting in Spring; 16 March - 3 April

https://gulbenkian.pt/cam/en/evento/nowruz-feasting-in-spring/

2017    Eid al-Fitr; Breaking the fast, 25 June - 2 July

https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/evento/eid-al-fitr/

The two installations at the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon were co-curated with Dr. Babaie's cohort of MA 2016-17: Arthur Bijl, Ricarda Brosch, Yagnaseni Datta, Clotilde Entrecanales, Joella Kiu, Yasmin Siabi, Kathryn Walker, Rosemary Williams

2010    Strolling in Isfahan, Sackler Museum, Harvard University, guest curator

2002    Treasures of Islamic Art from UMMA Collections, University of Michigan Museum of Art, with undergraduate students, November 30, 2002-June 1, 2006

1998    Islamic Art from the Permanent Collection, Smith College Museum of Art, with undergraduate students, April 14-May 30, 1998

1989    Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, co-curated with Marie Lukens             Swietochowski, Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 13 – December 31, 1989

Current

• Massoumeh Nahid Assemi, ‘The painted tiles at the Tekkiyeh Mu’avin ul-Mulk in Kermanshah (Iran)’
• Natasha Morris, ‘The Masculine Image in Qajar Iran (1772 – 1925)’
• Janet O'Brien, 'Embodying Kingship: Emergence of Persian Royal Portraiture (1739-1794)'

Completed

• Lamia Balafrej, Le maître Kamâl al-Din Behzâd et une copie du Bustân de Sa‘di (Caire, Dâr al-Kutub « Adab Fârisi 22 »). doctorante inscrite à l’Université d’Aix-Marseille. External Examiner (Sept 2013)
• Aida Foroutan, “The Reception of Surrealism in Iran.” University of Manchester, External Examiner (Feb 2013)
• Seyed Mohammad Ali Emrani, “The role of gardens and tree-lined streets in the urban development of Safavid Isfahan (1590-1722); A comparative approach (Paris and Versailles in the 17th century).” Lehrstuhl für landschaftsarchitektur und öffentlicher Raum, Institut für Entwerfen Stadt und Landschaft, Technische Universität, Munich, committee member (2012)
• Afshon Ostovar, “Radical Shi‘ism and the Modern Middle East: Nationalism, Modernity, and the Iranian Revolution.” University of Michigan, Department of History, committee member (2009)
• Min Yong Cho, “How Land Came into the Picture: Rendering History in Fourteenth-Century Iran.” University of Michigan, Department of the History of Art, supervisor and chair of the committee (2008)
• Diana Ng, “The Manipulation of Memory in the Public Buildings and Decorative Programs in Roman Asia Minor,” Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology, University of Michigan, committee member (2007)
• Amy Landau, “Farangi-Sazi at Isfahan: The Court Painter Muhammad Zaman, The Armenians of New Julfa and Shah Sulayman (1666-1694),” University of Oxford, The Oriental Institute; co-advisor with Dr. Julian Raby (2007)