The eighth Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, recently took place at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar) in Education City.
It is considered “one of the world’s most prestigious events on the Islamic art and architecture calendar”, according to a press statement.
This year’s theme was ‘The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art’. It featured panel discussions and debates on subjects ranging from ‘Seas Imagined and Depicted in Middle Eastern Art, Maps and Geography’ and ‘Transoceanic Movement, Muslim-Centred Design and Architecture in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries’ to ‘Islamic Art in 11th-14th Century Chinese Port Cities’.
Eminent scholars from institutions such as Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, SOAS University of London, University of Vienna and University of Melbourne spoke at the symposium, and it attracted more than 200 attendees over two days from Qatar and places as far afield as Canada, the US and Australia. This was the “largest ever attendance” for the symposium, which was established in 2004, the statement noted.
In his speech welcoming the attendees, VCUarts Qatar dean Amir Berbic said: “We have more than 40 participants, panel organisers, paper presenters and fellows here from all over the world.
With rich content, shared viewpoints and open discussions, and a concurrent gallery exhibition, this symposium is meant to be a vibrant forum of exchange for all participants and attendees.”
The symposium co-chairs were VCUarts Qatar Art History professors Dr Radha Dalal, Dr Jochen Sokoly and Dr Sean Roberts.
The 2019 Hamad Bin Khalifa Travel Fellowship Recipients were also announced at the symposium.
The Hamad bin Khalifa Travel Fellowship was created through sponsorship from Qatar Foundation, VCUarts in Richmond, Virginia, and VCUarts Qatar in order to provide financial support to scholars who wished to attend the conference.
The Fellows are Dr Sara Keller, a Junior Fellow at the Max-Weber Centre, University of Erfurt (Germany); Holley Ledbetter, a PhD candidate in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan; Dr Ridha Moumni, a Fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University; Jenny Peruski, a PhD candidate in the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University; and Jahfar Shareef Pokkanali, a PhD candidate at the department of Asian and Islamic Art History, University of Bonn.
For the first time in the decade-long history of the Travel Fellowship, the co-chairs invited applicants to present new and cutting-edge research in a workshop dedicated to the symposium’s theme. The five fellows selected represent a wide and talented cross-section of scholars currently engaged in the field of Islamic art.
The symposium included an exhibition at the university’s Gallery, titled ‘The Sea is the Limit’. The exhibition runs until December 7 and is open to the public.
A group photo of the symposium participants.
