Profile
Nebahat Avcıoğlu received her BA in Architecture from Istanbul Technical University, and her PhD from the University of Cambridge, Department of History of Art. She has held several Post-Doctoral and Research Fellowships, notably at Harvard University (Aga Khan Fellow), Dumbarton Oaks, Oxford University (Barakat Trust Fellow) and Columbia University (Institute for Scholars at Reid Hall in Paris). Before joining Hunter College in August 2011 she taught at the University of Cambridge as a Newton Trust and Barakat Trust Lecturer, at University of Manchester and Sciences-Po Paris, as well as at MIT as Visiting Professor. During Fall 2018 she was Archives By-Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge.
Prof. Avcıoğlu specialises in Islamic architecture and art with a particular emphasis on Ottoman/European cultural encounters. Her research interests center on dissemination and transformation of forms and cultures, theories of artistic contact, and socio-political aspects of the history of architecture from the early seventeenth century to the present. Her publications focus on imperialism, art and travel, the Enlightenment and exoticism, nineteenth century Orientalism in architecture, post-classical Istanbul and modern and contemporary mosques in Europe. Currently she is preparing a critical reader on the Islamic city and planning an exhibition and a catalogue on costume albums in collaboration with colleagues and students from a variety of disciplines.
Prof. Avcıoğlu offers graduate and undergraduate courses on Approaches to Islamic Art and Cultures; The Islamic City; Cultural Contacts between the Ottoman Empire and Europe; History of Ottoman Architecture; Orientalism and the Post-colonial Object; Modern Architecture in the Middle East; The City of Istanbul from Imperial Capital to Globalization; and Research Methods.