The Department of the History of Art and Architecture is pleased to welcome Walid Akef as a new faculty member who will teach Islamic Art and Architecture starting fall 2026. Akef is currently completing his PhD in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University, where his research focuses on the architectural history of the pre-modern Mediterranean world, with particular attention to North Africa, southern Italy, and Iberia.
His work examines landscapes of power in the western Islamic world, especially villa-like estates and their broader cultural and political contexts. More broadly, his research engages questions of cross-cultural exchange across the Mediterranean and the role of art and architecture in shaping political and intellectual histories.
Akef brings an international academic background, with degrees from Ain Shams University, the University of Granada, and the Aga Khan University in London, and has taught at both Ain Shams University and Harvard. His scholarship has been supported by institutions including Villa I Tatti and Dumbarton Oaks, and he has published widely in Arabic, Spanish, and English.
We look forward to welcoming him to the department.