Renata Holod appointed the College for Women Class of 1963 Term Professor in the Humanities

Renata Holod has been named the College for Women Class of 1963 Term Professor in the Humanities in the School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Holod is a member of the history of art department and Curator in the Near East Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She is a specialist in the study of the visual culture of the Islamic world and has conducted archaeological and architectural field work in Iran, Syria, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Tunisia. She has co-authored and edited the following works: City in the Desert: an account of an archeological expedition to Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi, Syria; Architecture and Community: Building in the Islamic World Today; Modern Turkish Architecture;  The Mosque and the Modern World; The City in the Islamic World, and An Island through Time: Jerba Studies.

Dr. Holod received her bachelor’s degree in Islamic studies from the University of Toronto, her master’s degree in the history of art from the University of Michigan and her doctorate in fine arts from Harvard University. She has received the King Fahd Medal for the teaching of Islamic architecture and has served as Convenor, Steering Committee Member, and Master Jury Chair for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

The College for Women Class of 1963 Term Chair in the Humanities was established in 1989 after Patricia Savage and Maryann Sudo initiated a fund drive among their classmates in the class of 1963 College of Women to endow a term chair that would honor the role of women as scholars, teachers and students at Penn.