Nada M. Shabout (born 8 January 1962,

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland) is an Iraqi-American

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

specializing in modern

Iraqi art Iraqi art is one of the richest art heritages in world and refers to all works of visual art originating from the geographical region of what is present day Iraq since ancient Mesopotamia, Mesopotamian periods. For centuries, the capital, Baghd ...

. She has been a professor of art history at the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...

since 2002. She is the president and co-founding board member of the Association for Modern and Contemporary Art (AMCA) of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey.

Biography

Early life and education

Nada Shabout was born in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, the oldest of three children born to a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

mother and Iraqi father. The family returned to Iraq when she was 6 years old and she graduated from Baghdad High School for Girls. Shabout was trained in architecture at the

New York Institute of Technology The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT or New York Tech) is a Private university, private research university, research university founded in 1955. It has two main campuses in New York (state), New York—one in Old Westbury, on Long I ...

, the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the second oldest university in the University of Texas System and was founded in 1895. It was in the Texas A& ...

and the

Architectural Association School of Architecture The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest private school of architecture in the UK. The AA hosts exhibitions, lectures, academic conference, symposia and publications. Histo ...

, London, England. She has also earned BFA fine arts, MA and PhD in the Humanities with a concentration in art history and criticism from the University of Texas at Arlington, 1999. She wrote her dissertation on "Modern Arab Art and the Metamorphosis of the Arabic Letter." A book based on her dissertation ''Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics,'' was published by the University of Florida Press, 2007.

Career

She has been an Assistant Professor of Art History at the

since 2002, teaching Arab visual culture and Islamic art. It was here that she introduced one of the world's first university classes on the subject of modern Arab visual art. She has been working on the documentation of modern Iraqi heritage, particularly the collection previously held at the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art since her visit to

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

in June 2003. She has been organizing panels and presenting around the world on the state of Iraq's modern heritage following 2003, the relationship of identity and visual representations in modern and contemporary Iraqi art, and exhibitions of Middle Eastern arts in the West since 911. She is a co-founder and president of the Association of Modern and Contemporary Art from the Arab World, Iran and Turkey (AMCA). In 2020, Shabout was elected for a four-year term to the 2020 College Art Association of America, Inc. Board of Directors meeting Feb. 14 at the 108th CAA Annual Conference in Chicago. Shabout was a long-term advisor at Mathaf and a member of the Board of Governors of the Cultural Development Center of the

Qatar Foundation The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development () is a state-led non-profit organization in Qatar, founded in 1995 by then-List of emirs of Qatar, emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his second wife Moza bint Nasser Al-Miss ...

. Shabout founded, together with Sarah Whitcher Kansa and Saleem Al-Bahloly, the Modern Art Iraq Archive in 2011. She was a regent professor of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative at the University of North Texas. She is the curator of the traveling exhibition "Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art," 2005-07; and "Moments from 20th Century Iraqi Art," at the Montalvo Art Center, California, 2007-2008. She has edited the exhibition catalogue "Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art" (UNT Art Gallery, 2007). Shabout has curated a number of exhibitions for Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, including "Interventions: A Dialogue Between the Modern and the Contemporary" and "Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art" in 2010.

Published works

Books

* ''Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics,'' University of Florida Press, 2007. * ''New Vision: Arab Art in the Twenty-First Century,'' Transglobe Publishing Ltd. and Thames & Hudson, 2009. * ''Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents,'' Co-edited with Sarah Rogers and Anneka Lenssen, MoMA Publications, 2018.

Catalogues

* ''Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art,'' Denton, TX: UNT Art Gallery, 2007. * ''Modernism and Iraq,'' New York: Columbia University, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, 2009. * ''Interventions: A Dialogue Between the Modern and the Contemporary,'' Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar. Milan: Skira Publisher, 2010. * ''Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art,'' Exhibition Catalogue, Co-editor and author, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar. Milan: Skira Publisher, 2010. * ''Forever Now: Five Anecdotes from the Permanent Collection,'' Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Bloomsbury, Qatar Foundation Publishing, 2012.

Articles

She is the author of several articles that examine legal and ethical responsibilities of the US in Iraq after 2003, including: * "Opinion: An ancient treasure may be returned to Iraq. Many others are still lost,"

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

, July 31, 2021. * "The Iraqi Museum of Modern Art: Ethical Implications," Collections (Vol. 2, no. 4, May, AltaMira Press, 2006); * "Historiographic Invisibilities: The Case of Contemporary Iraqi Art," the International Journal of the Humanities (volume 3, Number 9, 2006); * "The "Free" Art of Occupation: Images for a "New" Iraq," Arab Studies Quarterly (Volume 28, Number 3 and 4 Summer and Fall 2006); and * "Preservation of Iraqi Modern Heritage in the Aftermath of the US Invasion of 2003," in Gail Levin and Elaine A. King, eds, An anthology on Ethics in the Art World (Allworth Press, 2006).

Awards

Among her honors is The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) fellowship 2006 and 2007; and

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Senior Scholar Program, 2007 Lecture/Research fellowship to Jordan Project, "Arab Art Now: A Study of the Contemporary Art Vision in Jordan." She received both an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and The Presidential Excellency Award at the University of North Texas in 2018. In 2020, she received the University of North Texas' Regent's Professorship Award, which provides recognition for faculty at the rank of professor who have performed outstanding teaching, research and service to the profession, and who have achieved a high level of national and international recognition. She was the first professor from the department of Art Education and Art History to receive this award in the 33 years that the award had existed. In 2021, Shabout received the Kuwait Prize for Arts and Literature from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, known regionally as the "Arab Nobel Prize," the foundation recognizes lifetime achievements of Arab researchers. Also in 2021, Shabout was selected by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery to deliver a Clarice Smith Distinguished Lecture in American Art.

References

External links

Official website of The Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey (AMCA)
* Official website o
Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)

Video of Shabout discussing her research at afikra Conversations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shabout, Nada Scottish emigrants to the United States 1962 births Living people American art historians American women art historians American people of Iraqi descent University of Texas at Arlington alumni American people of Palestinian descent New York Institute of Technology alumni 21st-century American women British women curators American women curators American curators Iraqi women curators