Esra Akın-Kıvanç
Biography
Esra Akın-Kıvanç holds the Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Art from The Ohio State University. She comes to USF from Oberlin College & Conservatory, where she held the position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History and Religion. She teaches courses in Islamic art, architecture, visual, and material culture; Islamic art historiography; Islamic theories of aesthetics and visual perception with special emphasis on the relationship between art, political ideology, and religion. She is the author of Mustafa Ali’s Epic Deeds of Artists: A Study on the Earliest Ottoman Text About the Calligraphers and Painters of the Islamic World (Leiden: Brill, 2011). She co-authored, with Howard Crane, Sinan’s Autobiographies: Five Sixteenth-century Texts (Leiden: Brill, 2006). Akın-Kıvanç’s past research and publications were supported by the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University, the Presidential Scholarship at The Ohio State University, the American Research Institute in Turkey, and, most recently, American Council of Learned Societies. Her recent book, Muthanna/Mirror Writing in Islamic Art: History, Theory, Aesthetics, was published by Indiana University Press in September 2020.
Research Activity
Monographs
Muthanna/Mirror Writing in Islamic Calligraphy: History, Theory and Aesthetics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020).
Mustafa Âli’s Epic Deeds of Artists: A Study on the Earliest Ottoman Text about the Calligraphers and Painters of the Islamic World. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2011.
Sinan’s Autobiographies: Five Sixteenth-century Texts. Co-author with Howard Crane. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006.
Practice Book for First Year Turkish. Columbus: The Ohio State University Foreign Language Publications and Services, 2000.
Book Chapter
“The Making of a Legendary Calligrapher: Textual Portraits of Sheikh Hamdullah.” Hani
Khafipour (ed.). Empires of the Near East and India: Sources for the Study of Safavid, Ottoman, and
Mughal Societies. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018.
Peer-Reviewed Research Articles
“‘Such a Qur’an No Individual Might Own’: A 15th-century Mamluk Qur’an from Ottoman
Jerusalem.” The Journal of Ottoman Studies, Vol. 48 (July, 2016): 229-268.
"Mustafa Âli’s Epic Deeds of Artists and New Approaches to Written Sources of Ottoman Art." Journal of Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Vol. 2, Number 2 (2015): 225-258.
Invited Essays
“Modern Narratives of the Past at Çatalhöyük.” The Middle East and South Asia Folklore Bulletin. Vol. 16, Numbers 2/3 (Spring/Autumn,
2000): 6-10
Grants/Fellowships
- 2019, National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Grant
- 2017 American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship
- 2017 Summer Research Grant, College of Design, Art & Performance, University of South Florida
- 2017 Creative Scholarship Grant, University of South Florida
- 2017 Faculty International Travel Grant, University of South Florida
- 2015 Summer Research Grant, College of Design, Art & Performance, University of South Florida
- 2015 Travel Grant, College of Design, Art & Performance, University of South Florida
- 2014 New Researcher Grant, University of South Florida
- 2011-2013 Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, Oberlin College and Conservatory
- 2004 Presidential Fellowship, The Ohio State University
- 2003 Dissertation Writing Grant, American Research Institute in Turkey
- 2003 Samuel Kress Travel Fellowship in the History of Art, June 2003 (declined)
- 2003 CIC Traveling Scholar, University of Chicago, Summer Consortium in Arabic
- 2002 CIC Traveling Scholar, University of Chicago, Summer Consortium in Arabic
- 2000 Research Travel Grant, Office of International Education, The Ohio State University