Curators
Carmen Pérez González, an expert in 19th-century Iranian photography, is a postdoctoral research associate at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Bergische Universität Wuppertal, in Germany. Prior to her work at the University, Dr. Pérez González served as an exhibition manager and curator, and has worked with institutions including the Science Museum in Barcelona; the Department of Culture of the Embassy of Spain in Prague; the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne and, now, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU. The many publications she has authored include the catalogue for the Museum of East Asian Art exhibition From Istanbul to Yokohama: The Camera Meets Asia, 1839–1900 (Walther König Verlag, 2014). She has also co-edited two special issues of academic journals, one on the history of Iranian photography, the other on the history of Spanish photography.
Dr. Pérez González holds a master’s degree in astrophysics (University of Barcelona, 1993), an A.B.D. in Fine Arts (Photography, University of Barcelona, 2006), and a doctorate in Art History (Leiden University, 2010), where her dissertation was awarded the ICAS (International Convention of Asian Scholars) award for Best PhD thesis in Humanities in 2011. A revised and augmented version of the dissertation was published with the title Local Portraiture: Through the Lens of the 19thCentury Iranian Photographers (Leiden University Press, Iranian Studies Series, 2012).
Reza Sheikh was a co-founder of the Axkhane-ye Shahr photography museum in Tehran (1995), where he was director and a member of the curatorial team. He has continued his work in the field as an independent scholar of history of photography of Iran over the past twenty years, publishing his articles in Iran and in select publications abroad. An adjunct lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts, Tehran University, since 2010, he teaches graduate-level classes in the history of Iranian photography, comparative world history of photography, and photo-criticism, and has served as thesis advisor to graduate students. He has been a member of the editorial board of two Iranian journals. He holds a PhD in Materials Science from Columbia University, in New York City.
Reza Sheikh and Carmen Pérez González were co-editors of and contributors to the special issue of the journal History of Photography on the First Hundred Years of Iranian Photography (February 2013).
Judith A. Lerner is a Research Associate at ISAW and co-editor of the Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology. Dr. Lerner's main areas of interest are the visual cultures of pre- and early Islamic Iran and Central Asia, and the reciprocity of artistic and religious ideas between these regions and China. She has published widely in these areas and has a particular interest in the glyptic art of the Iranian world, most recently authoring Seals, Sealings and Tokens from Bactria to Gandhara (4th to 8th Century CE). Other publications are Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China, Gansu and Ningxia, 4th--7th Century, co-authored and -edited with Annette L. Juliano, and Aspects of Assimilation: the Funerary Practices and Furnishings of Central Asians in China. Dr. Lerner received her PhD from Harvard University.
Jennifer Y. Chi established and leads ISAW's exhibitions program. Dr. Chi was curator of ISAW's inaugural exhibition, Wine, Worship, and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani (2008), for which she also edited the catalogue; co-curator and catalogue editor of The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley 5000–3500 BC (2009) and From Ancient to Modern: Archaeology and Aesthetics (2015); and on the curatorial team for Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos (2011), Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan (2012), and The Eye of the Shah: Qajar Court Photography and the Persian Past (2015–16). A specialist in Roman imperial sculpture, Dr. Chi was a fellow of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1999–2000. She is also a member of the sculpture publication team at the renowned classical site of Aphrodisias in Turkey. Dr. Chi holds an M.A. from the University of Oxford with distinction, and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.
Jennifer Miyuki Babcock is a Curatorial Postdoctoral Associate in the ISAW Exhibitions Department, Jennifer Babcock received her M.A. and Ph.D. in ancient Egyptian art and archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts. For her dissertation, she studied the drawings of anthropomorphized animals found on New Kingdom ostraca (limestone fragments used as a writing surface) and papyri. She previously worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Brooklyn Museum, and, with the Metropolitan Museum, spent a field season studying relief fragments from the Pyramid Temple and causeway at Senwosret III's pyramid complex at Dahshur, Egypt.