Dr. Shiva Balaghi is an independent scholar and curator. Balaghi was among the first faculty to introduce the subject of Contemporary Middle Eastern Art at US universities, teaching for nearly two decades…

Bahram Beyzaie is one of Iran’s most acclaimed filmmakers, playwrights, and scholars of the history of Iranian theater, both secular and religious. He was a leader of the generation of filmmakers known…

Mehrdad Fakour is a lecturer and author on the subjects of culture, symbolism, art and archaeology of the ancient Near East and Early Islam. He received his Ph.D. from the University of…

Mehdi Ghadyanloo is an Iranian artist known for his utopian and philosophical paintings that interrogate universal human precepts such as fear, hope and loss. Through the portrayal of minimal heterotopic environments, surreal…

Ghalamdar (“the writer” in Farsi) is a graffiti artist (born 1994, Tehran, Iran), working since 2006. He is an active member of Calligraffiti community and called between the four most recognized Iranian street artists who…

Talinn Grigor is a Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of California, Davis. Her research concentrates on the cross-pollination of art and (post)colonial…

Christiane Gruber is Associate Professor of Islamic Art in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her primary field of research is Islamic book arts, paintings of…

Sohrab Kashani is an interdisciplinary artist and an independent curator based in Tehran. Sohrab is the founder and director of Sazmanab, formerly a center for contemporary art and a not for profit…

Bahman Kiarostami was born in Tehran in 1978, he started working as an assistant director in 1996. His films have focused on the political power of faith inside contemporary Iranian culture and…

Ahoo Najafian is a Ph.D. student in the Religious Studies department at Stanford. She received her B.A. and M.A. in English Literature from the University of Tehran, Iran, and holds an M.A.…