Challenging Eurocentric art history, the circulation of early pictures of Makkah and the pre-Islamic Christian heritage of the UAE are among the research projects selected as part of Louvre Abu Dhabi’s inaugural Fellowships and Grants programme.
The initiative is designed to support new inquiry in the fields of art history, museum studies, heritage science, conservation and archaeology. Five scholars were selected from a pool of 170 submissions from around the world.
The programme offers both short and long-term fellowships to scholars. Short-term fellows receive an award of Dh85,000 for a three-month residency, while long-term fellows are granted Dh245,000 to support a nine-month research project.
The first cohort of fellow scholars will have unprecedented access to Louvre Abu Dhabi’s facilities, including its research centre, conservation centre as well as a state-of-the-art scientific library that is touted to be “the first of its kind in the Gulf region”.
The fellows will work closely with the museum’s collection to research what expands our understanding of art history and culture, embracing a polyphony of cultural perspectives, especially those from the Global South.
Here are the inaugural programme’s five fellows as well as their projects.
Hamid Keshmirshekan
Hamid Keshmirshekan is a senior scholar at Columbia University and a former teaching fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London. The British scholar has been selected as one of the short-term fellows of the programme.
His project, De-centring the Canon: Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Challenge to Eurocentric Art History, investigates how Louvre Abu Dhabi incorporates modern and contemporary Middle Eastern artists into its universal narrative. Through this lens, he examines curatorial approaches that question Eurocentric frameworks and creates room for alternative art histories.
Helena Barranha
Helena Barranha is a Portuguese professor at the Instituto Superior Tecnico in the University of Lisbon and a researcher at the Institute of Art History of the NOVA University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Social and Human Sciences.
Also selected as a short-term fellow, Barranha brings a project titled The Multiple Images of a Cosmopolitan Museum: Mapping the Visual Representations and Architectural Reinterpretations of Louvre Abu Dhabi.
The project examines how the museum’s architecture reflects cultural convergence and is reinterpreted by the public, particularly through social media. She also investigates how digital tools, including AI, are transforming the perception of museum spaces.
Mizuho Ikeda
A research associate at the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies and a teaching fellow at Soas, Mizuho Ikeda is the programme’s only long-term fellow.
Her project, Universal Museums and Religious Diversity: A Comparative Analysis of Exhibition Practices at Louvre Abu Dhabi and Museums in Asia, explores how Hindu and Buddhist artworks are presented at Louvre Abu Dhabi. The British-Japanese scholar examines curatorial strategies and visitor engagement in the display of sacred art within a global, multi-faith context.
Rhomaillessa Talhaoui
A graduate of Universite Paris Cite, Rhomaillessa Talhaoui is a French-Moroccan scholar whose work focuses on the circulation and reinterpretation of early photographs of Makkah between 1880 and 1920.
In The Transimperial Circulation of Early Pictures of Makkah (1880–1920), she traces how these images moved through colonial, religious and commercial networks. It highlights the contributions of local photographers and challenges western-centric interpretations of early photography in the region.
Suhaila Almansoori
Suhaila Almansoori is an Emirati historian and cultural heritage professional, currently pursuing a master’s degree in archaeology and cultural heritage at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi.
Her project, Pre-Islamic Christian Heritage in the United Arab Emirates: An Evaluation of the Siniya Island Archaeological Site, builds on her archaeological fieldwork at Al Sulaimi in the Al Ain region and the Christian monastery from the sixth or seventh century uncovered at Siniya Island in Umm Al Quwain. Her current research focuses on a rare palm frond basket coated with bitumen, which was discovered earlier this year.
