Bio
Ayesha Usman Shaikh (b. 1993) is a third-year doctoral student of Islamic architecture and urbanism in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. Her research focuses on Indian Ocean maritime connectivity in relation to visual and architectural material attributed to Gujarat, India during the early modern period.
Education
Doctoral Student, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Department of History of Art and Architecture
Harvard University
2022 to Present
Master of Science in Architecture Studies
School of Architecture and Urban Planning
History, Theory and Criticism &
Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2018 to 2020
Bachelor of Arts, History of Art
Department of History of Art
University of California, Berkeley
2015 to 2017
Awards and Grants
Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture,
Pre-Dissertational Fieldwork Grant,
Harvard University
2023 and 2024
International Science and Technology Initiatives Grant
Museum für Islamische Kunst, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2022 to 2023
Adrienne Arsht Graduate Internship and
Solow Art and Architecture Graduate Intership
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
2021 to 2022
School of Architecture and Urban Planning Academic Scholarship
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2018 to 2020
Languages
Urdu (speaking only)
German (intermediate)
Persian (elementary)
and Arabic (elementary)