Zainab Bahrani (; born 29 August 1962) is an Iraqi

Assyriologist Assyriology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logy, -logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cune ...

and is Edith Porada Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. She was elected fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 2020. In 2019 she was awarded an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship; she previously held a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 2003. In 2009 she was awarded the

James Henry Breasted James Henry Breasted (; August 27, 1865 – December 2, 1935) was an American archaeologist, Egyptologist, and historian. After completing his PhD at the University of Berlin in 1894 – the first American to obtain a doctorate in Egyptology – ...

Prize. Her book ''The Graven Image'' demonstrated "a complete overturning of Eurocentric representations of the cultural and artistic legacies of ancient Assyria and Babylonia".

Early life and education

A native of

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 ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

, she was educated in Europe and the United States. She received her Master of Arts and doctoral degrees (Ph.D. 1989) in art history and archeology from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Institute of Fine Arts An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

Career

Prior to her appointment at Columbia University, Bahrani taught at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

, and was a curator in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

's Near Eastern Antiquities Department from 1989 to 1992. She was

Slade Professor of Fine Art The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art and art history at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and University College, London. History The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collect ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

for 2010–11. On May 25, 2004, Bahrani was appointed to work with the

Coalition Provisional Authority The Coalition Provisional Authority (; , CPA) was a Provisional government, transitional government of Iraq established following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, invasion of the country on 19 March 2003 by Multi-National Force – Iraq, U.S.-led Co ...

as Senior Consultant for Culture. She stated that her objective was to continue the reconstruction of the Iraq National Museum and the Iraq National Library. She also worked to restore documents to the National Archives of Iraq. Bahrani has written widely on ancient near eastern art. Her book ''The Infinite Image'' was described by Matthew Canepa as a tool for "advocacy of the relevance of ancient Near Eastern art to contemporary art historical discourse, programs, and museums". In ''Scramble for the Past,'' edited by Bahrani, she also wrote a chapter which described how Ottoman and European colonial powers used the Assyrian past to meet their own "ideological goals". In reviewing ''The Graven Image'' archaeologist Jeremy Tanner described how Bahrani's book demonstrated "a complete overturning of Eurocentric representations of the cultural and artistic legacies of ancient Assyria and Babylonia", compounding the notion that the idea of 'Mesopotamia' itself is a colonial product. Bahrani's book ''The Ritual Body'' was reviewed by Carolyn Nakamura, who described it as "an illuminating and theoretically rich consideration of Assyro-Babylonian war and violence".

Awards and recognition

Bahrani was elected fellow of the

in 2020. In 2019 she "was awarded an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship; she previously held a

in 2003. In 2009 she was awarded the

Prize.

Selected works

* ''Women of Babylon: Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia'' (Routledge, 2001) * ''The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) * ''Rituals of War: The Body and Violence in Mesopotamia'' (New York, 2008) * Zainab Bahrani, Zeynep Çelik, and Edhem Eldem, eds. ''Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire.'' (Istanbul: SALT, 2011) * ''The Infinite Image: Art, Time and the Aesthetic Dimension in Antiquity'' (Reaktion Books, 2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahrani, Zainab Columbia University faculty Iraqi women academics Iraqi archaeologists Iraqi Assyriologists 1962 births Living people People from Baghdad Iraqi emigrants to the United States Academic staff of the University of Vienna Stony Brook University faculty Slade Professors of Fine Art (University of Oxford) New York University Institute of Fine Arts alumni Women orientalists Iraqi women archaeologists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Iraqi women curators