The Â鶹AV School of Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce the successful doctoral dissertation defense of Alex Brey, History of Art, on April 17th. Alex's dissertation, "The Caliph's Prey: Hunting in the Visual Cultures of the Umayyad Empire" explores images of hunting in architectural decoration produced within the Umayyad caliphate (ca. 660-750 C.E.).
Alex's work demonstrates the complexities of hunting imagery of the Arab-Muslim imperial elite and their conquered subjects to elucidate elite self-perception in relation to each other and to the natural world. His research is an important contribution to the study of early Islamic art by using under-studied monuments in the provinces and frontiers of the Umayyad caliphate to contextualize developments in contemporaneous, better known monuments in the imperial heartland of greater Syria.
Congratulations Alex!