Nader Sayadi is a PhD candidate in Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a specialist in Islamic art, architectural, and urban history with a concentration on early modern global economic history. Having an academic and professional background in historic preservation and architectural design, Nader has worked, conducted research, and taught since 2010.

His research interests include textile history and its technical and technological aspects, the built environment of manufacturing, commerce, trade, and mobility, the material culture and built environment of power and piety, and the micro and macro spatialities of the frontiers and bordered-lands. Nader’s dissertation is an architectural and urban history of the city of Kashan, Iran, in the late eighteenth through the nineteenth century from the local economy and silk weaving craft (sha’rbafi) points of view.

Photo credit: Vivian Nguyen