Bihter Esener

Dr. Bihter Esener is an art historian of the visual and material cultures of the medieval Islamic world, with a special interest in Armenian, Byzantine, and Persian-Islamic artistic exchange and cultural encounters in medieval Anatolia, the South Caucasus, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Her dissertation contextualized bronze mirrors within the lives of the inhabitants of medieval Anatolia by considering their various functions in personal adornment and their use in devotional, divinatory, and talismanic practices during the Seljuk period, that is, between the late eleventh and early fourteenth centuries. She is currently working on a book manuscript exploring Seljuk-period bronze mirrors in medieval Anatolia.

Dr. Esener is affiliated faculty at the Digital Studies Institute (DSI). She was previously a Research Assistant in the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum (DISC). and a Freer Visiting Graduate Student Fellow in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan. She is one of the founding members of Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, for which she serves as Digital Technologies Coordinator as well as an assistant editor at the International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA). Her research has been supported by various institutions, including the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT)'s Hanfmann Fellowship, SOAS-Getty Connecting Art Histories Research Project, and Koç University's Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies (GABAM).

Current Courses:

• HISTART 253-001&002 The Mediterranean: Art and Exchange
• HISTART 347-001 Sports and Art in the Middle Ages
• HISTART 393-006 Istanbul Through the Ages

Courses Taught:

• HISTART 294-003 Art and Architecture of the Mediterranean World
• HISTART 253-001 The Mediterranean: Art and Exchange
• HISTART 393-005 Medievalism in Video Games: Art, Culture and Theory
• HISTART 393-006 Istanbul Through the Ages

Fields of Study:

• Islamic Art and Architecture 
• Artistic interactions in the Medieval Mediterranean, South Caucasus, and Anatolia  
• Medieval Islamic Metalwork 
• Visual and Material Culture 
• Built Environment and Landscape
• Digital Art History

Memberships:

• Historians of Islamic Art Association
• International Center of Medieval Art
• Association of Friends of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies
• Byzantine Studies Association of North America
• International Council of Museums-United States

News from the Classroom:

• Historical Digital Games as Teaching Tools