Who we are
Project Lead
Dr Peyvand Firouzeh is a trained architect and art historian specializing in medieval and early modern art and architecture from the Islamic world, with research interests in Indian Ocean studies, the arts of Sufism, the interaction of image, space, and text, and the mobility of artistic and intellectual networks within and beyond the Persianate world. She is Lecturer in Islamic Art History at the University of Sydney, and leads the project Art, Migration, State-Building: India in the Indian Ocean World, funded through an Australian Research Council DECRA fellowship. Her monograph, Intimacies of Global Sufism: Ne‘matullahi Shrines and Material Culture between Iran and India, is forthcoming with Indiana University Press (2025).
Peyvand Firouzeh
Digital Humanities Coordinator
Farah Michel is a designer and researcher working at the intersection of architectural representation, virtual reality, history, and memory. Her research explores the impact of digital modeling and VR technology on reality-based storytelling, while reflecting on the use of interconnected immersive worlds as a way of situating, cross-referencing, and navigating fragmented data points and memories. Her research aims to enhance inclusivity by bringing attention to stories often concealed or omitted from prevailing political narratives. Her work has received awards at international competitions including the Model Architecture Festival and the Open Political Spaces competition. Farah holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Toronto, Canada.
Farah Michel
Michelle Luo
Research Assistant
Miranda Luo is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on the interplay between architecture and portable objects by examining the chinikhana (porcelain house) in 16th and 17th century India in relation to notions of connoisseurship, mobility, and monumentality. She is also interested in leveraging digital methods to inspire new avenues for art historical inquiry and more specifically, its ability to uncover networks of trade and artistic exchange in the early modern period. Miranda is currently working on expanding and visualising the DECRA project's database and is interested in the use of interactive maps to trace Indian Ocean connections through space and time.
Jennifer Yang
Research Assistant
Jennifer Yang is a PhD candidate in the Departmenc of Art History at the University of Sydney. Her research traces shifting representations of femininity, domesticity, and deviancy which transpire in readings of photographic material documenting female workers and migrants in 19th-20th century Southeast Asian port cities. Jennifer is also interested in the dialogues generated by contemporary art practices which critically respond to the colonial archive. Her curatorial interests include explorations of Asian diasporic identity and the politics of place, nationhood, and gender. Currently, Jennifer is curating "Everything We Inherit", a group exhibition of Australian artists with ancestral connections to Southeast Asia, for ISA Gallery, Jakarta.
