News & Events
Fall Semester Employment Opportunity
The Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT), is seeking an employee to assist with processing content for Archnet, an open access, scholarly resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues, with a particular focus on the Muslim world. Archnet provides ready access to unique visual and textual material to facilitate teaching, scholarship, and professional work of high quality. Duties: The successful applicant will assist in various projects under the supervision of Archnet Content Manager Michael Toler, including: Work with the Archnet Content Manager and Visual Resources Librarian Matt Saba to prepare uploads of...
Book on Abbasid Palaces by Matt Saba Published
Impermanent Monuments, Lasting Legacies: The Dār al-Khilāfa of Samarra and Palace Building in Early Abbasid Iraq, by AKDC Visual Resources Librarian Matthew Saba, has recently been released by Reichert Publishing. The book, available in electronic or print format, was developed from Saba’s dissertation research offering a new interpretation of the palaces built by the Abbasid dynasty of Iraq at the apex of its political power from 750 to 900 A.D. As a case study, it focuses on the palace known as the Dār al-Khilāfa (Abode of the Caliphate), constructed in the city of Samarra, founded by the Abbasids in 836...
20 projects in 16 countries, from Indonesia to Cape Verde, Shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Geneva, Switzerland, 2 June 2022 – The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) today announced 20 shortlisted projects for the 2022 Award cycle. The projects will compete for a share of the US$ 1 million prize, one of the largest in architecture. The 20 shortlisted projects were selected by an independent Master Jury from a pool of 463 projects nominated for the 15th 3-year cycle (2020-2022) of the prestigious award. Independent experts, including architects, conservation specialists, planners and structural engineers, have conducted rigorous on-site reviews for each project . The Master Jury meets again this summer to examine the on-site...
AKDC Program Head to edit volume on the topic of restitution of cultural artifacts
AKDC Program Head Dr. Nur Sobers-Khan is one of the curators of §RETURN, HEAL, REDISTRIBUTE, an upcoming issue of ROOTS§ROUTES a multilingual, independent quarterly magazine of visual culture published in Italy. The focus of the issue curated by Dr. Sobers-Khan, Domenico Sergi, Anna Chiara Cimoli and Giulia Grechi is Restitution, an important and timely issue in contemporary museum practice, the debate of which often serves to expose “deeply rooted colonial epistemologies.” In Europe and the US, “one of the most frequent objections to restitution is the weak scientific infrastructure of the communities where objects would be returned,” a premise that...
AKDC Seeks Applications for Collections Curator
The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT is seeking applications for the position of Collections Curator, a versatile and exciting new role for a specialist in Islamic art and/or architecture who will be responsible for researching AKDC’s extensive physical collections and making them accessible to a range of audiences. The Collections Curator will lead projects describing and disseminating the unique archival holdings the center, creating and developing collaborative projects of a scholarly nature, and generating public events and projects around the collections. The role will also design and carry out workflows that document, preserve, and render our collections accessible and...