Sibel Zandi-Sayek

Trained as an architect, urban planner, and architectural historian, Sibel Zandi-Sayek joined the department of Art and Art History at William and Mary in 2002. She holds professional degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Zandi-Sayek’s primary research interests are centered on the material dimensions of cross-cultural exchange, specifically how the built environment mediates encounters based in trade, colonialism, and trans-imperial migration. She teaches courses on the history and theory of modern architecture and urbanism from a global perspective as well as specialized seminars on public space, built heritage, and commemorative landscapes. She is the recipient of several research awards, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, and the Fulbright Institute, and has published in English, French and Turkish. Her book, Ottoman Izmir: The Rise of a Cosmopolitan Port, 1840-1880 (University of Minnesota Press, 2012), focuses on the politics of space and identity in a city at the nexus of nineteenth-century global exchanges. The book was awarded the 2013 M. Fuat Köprülü Prize in Ottoman and Turkish Studies. Professor Zandi-Sayek was the founding co-director of the Asian and Middle East Studies (AMES) Program at William & Mary (2010-2013) and served as Reviews Editor for the "International Journal of Islamic Architecture" (2017-2020). Her current research investigates architecture and industrial technologies in relation to nineteenth-century mobilities and knowledge networks in Europe and the Ottoman Empire.