Visual and material culture in modern Egypt
Architecture, design and heritage in modern Cairo
Islamic art collecting and aesthetic interiors in the global nineteenth century
Digital Humanities and art history.
Education
2007 University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.“Habilitation” in Art History
1993 University of Provence,France.Doctorat (Phd) in Middle Eastern Studies
1982 Unité pédagogique d'Architecture n° 1, Paris, France. “Architecte DPLG”
French, Spanish, English, Egyptian Arabic (proficiency in dialect, reading capacities of literary Arabic).
2008 ̶ Research professor of CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) at InVisu, digital research center on architecture, antiquarianism and applied arts in the 19th and 20th century, based at Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris, France.
2019-2022 Partner of the Innovative Training Network MIDA (Mediating Islam in the Digital age: Present issues and past experiences of technological revolutions) funded by the Marie Curie Program of the European Commission.
2017-2021 Co-director of GIS Moyen-Orient et mondes musulmans
2016-2022 Member of the CNRS recruiting and assessment Committee in History
2015 ̶ Advisory board of the journal Annales islamologiques.
2012 ̶ Supervisor of 6 Phds in Art History at University Paris I.
2006̶ Scientific evaluations for European Research Council, Agence nationale de la Recherche, Israel Research Foundation, Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation, Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, FMSH, University of California at Davis, etc.
2004 ̶ Member of the Scientific Board of Revue des Mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée.
2017-2018 Chair of the Michel Seurat Award Committee, CNRS, Paris, France.
2014-2017 Co-organizer of the annual Spring School in Islamic studies, joint initiative of the Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies and Institut sur l’Islam et les Sociétés du monde musulman, École des Hautes études en sciences sociales, France.
2010-2014 Chair of COST Action IS0904: “European architecture beyond Europe: Sharing Research and Knowledge on Dissemination Processes, Historical Data and Material Legacy (19th-20th centuries)
2012-2016 Head of the research initiative « Cosmopolitan architecture » at Institut français d’archéologie orientale, Cairo, Egypt.
2013-2015 Graduate seminar on Collecting practices and aesthetic interiors, with Dominique Poulot at University Paris I (Master “History and politics of heritage and museums”)
2008-2011 Head of the project « Isthme : un territoire inventé aux confins de l’Égypte », funded by Agence nationale de la recherche (Blanc 2007), in partnership with Musée du Louvre and IREMAM and with the support of Institut français d’archéologie orientale.
2006-2013 Lecturer at Université Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France, graduate course on the Invention of heritage in the Mediterranean, Master “History and politics of heritage and museums”.
2006-2009 Head of the international research network « Modern architecture in the Mediterranean », GDRI 71 (CNRS) and organisation of its Annual Workshops.
2002-2005 Project Manager of European project “Patrimoines partagés : savoirs et savoir-faire appliqués au patrimoine architectural et urbain des XIXe et XXe siècles en Méditerranée”, consortium of 15 partners from 9 European and Mediterranean countries (within Euromed Heritage II–EuropAid office, European Commission).
2001-2004 Member of the Scientific Committee of the French Institutes in the Middle East, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, France.
1993-2005 Lecturer at University of Tours, graduate course on Heritage in the Arab world.
1991-2007 Junior Researcher of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique at Urbama, University of Tours, France.
2017 LUCIS Fall fellow at Leiden University for a series of lectures on « Thinking about things : Patterns of art consumption across the Modern Mediterranean », to be published by Brill.
2015 Visiting Professor at Cairo University (French literature) for a series of lectures on “Architecture in modern Egypt”.
2015-2018 Visiting scholar in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Research Department to work on the project “Early Islamic art collecting from Egypt and Syria at the V&A”.
2012 (Spring) Visiting professorship at Geneva University (Maison de l’Histoire): course on “Modernity and the arts in the Middle East, 1850-1950”.
2012 Elected fellow at the Comité français d’Histoire de l’art (CFHA substitute member at the International Committee for Art History).
2011 Medal of Cairo University, Faculty of Engineering, Egypt.
2010 Fellow of Academia Europaea, section of art and architectural history and musicology.
2010 (Jul-Aug)Senior visiting fellowship at CASVA, National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA.
2009 Award “Jean-Édouard Goby”, Institut de France, Paris, France.
2009 (Spring) Fellowship of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.
1990 Award "Michel Seurat", CNRS.
1986-1989 Doctoral Fellowship of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
2017 L’invention photographique du Caire historique: jalons, raisons, leçons, international symposium, 17 May 2017, INHA, Paris (podcasted).
2014 Crossing boundaries: Rethinking European architecture beyond Europe, final conference of the European project European architecture beyond Europe (COST Action IS0904), Palermo, Italy.
2013 Engaging Egypt in art, architecture and display, at home and abroad (19th and 20th century), international symposium organized at INHA, Paris, France (26-27 June 2013), with the support of Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar (Published).
2011 L’orientalisme et après ? Médiations, appropriations, contestations, international symposium organized with François Pouillon and Jean-Claude Vatin, at EHESS and Institut du monde arabe, Paris, France, (15-17 June 2011) (published).
2011 L’Égypte d’Émile Prisse d’Avennes (1807-1879), artiste et antiquaire, symposium organized at INHA, Paris, France (31 March 2011) (published).
2010 Les arts de l'Islam et l'Europe du 19e siècle : collections, expositions, interprétations, international symposium co-organized at Musée des Beaux-arts de Lyon, France (20-21 May 2011).
2010 « Still on the margin: Reflections on the persistence of the canon in architectural history », round-table co-organized with Joe Nasr, Ryerson University, at the European Architectural History Network - 1st International Conference, Guimarães, Portugal (17-20 June 2010) (published).
2006 Les orientalismes en architecture à l’épreuve des savoirs, international seminar co-organized with Nabila Oulebsir at INHA, Paris, France (5-6 May 2006) (published).
2005 “Dynamiques transnationales : nouvelles approches de la modernité et des terrains coloniaux” panel at the SAH Conference Changing Boundaries, Architectural History in Transition, Paris, France (1-5 September 2005) (published).
2003 Entre deux mondes : prosopographies et biographies de « médiateurs », symposium organizedwithBernard Heyberger, at Tours University, France (26 March 2003) (published).
1998 Imported or Exported Urbanism?, international seminar co-organized with Joe Nasr at AUB, Beirut, Lebanon (20-22 December 1998) (published).
1997 Un siècle d'architecture savante en Égypte (1850-1950), international symposium organized at the Italian Cultural Institute, Cairo, Egypt (2-4 March 1997) (published).
1993-1996 Architectures exportées, series of 5 seminars organized at Tours University, France (published).