| Year Graduated | 2011 |
| Department Affiliation | Art History |
| Dissertation | To Lift the Veil from the Face of Depiction’: Figural Imagery and Visual Culture in Early Islamic Central Asia |
| Current Position | Board Member and Programs Committee Co-Chair at ICOM-US |
| Biographical Information | Leslee Katrina Michelsen is a Board Member and Programs Committee Co-Chair at ICOM-US. From 2017–2023 she was the Senior Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu, where she led the team responsible for the exhibition, interpretation, research, and conservation of the museum’s collection of historic and contemporary arts of the Islamic world. She was also the Head of the Curatorial and Research Section at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar from 2011–2016, and has worked on numerous cultural heritage and archaeology projects throughout Central Asia, South Asia, and East Africa. She is a specialist of materiality and making from the historic to the contemporary periods in Central and South Asia, and of myriad mediums ranging from architecture to ceramics to textiles. She also explores contemporary museology of the arts of the Islamic world, and serves on the Steering Committee of Steppe Sisters as well as the museum grantmaking initiatives of the National Endowment for the Arts. |
| Publications | Exhibition Catalogues Michelsen, Leslee et al. Marvellous Creatures: Animal Fables in Islamic Art. Milan: Silvana, 2015. Michelsen, Leslee Katrina. Ferozkoh: Tradition and Continuity in Afghan Art. Doha: Bloomsbury Press, 2013. Articles Michelsen, Leslee. “Lājvard and Fīrūzeh: The Color Blue in the Ceramics of Medieval Iran and Central Asia,” and eight object entries, in Yuka Kadoi (ed.), The Blue Road: Mastercrafts from Persia. Hong Kong: Liang Yi Museum, 2018, pp. 22–33, 46, 56–57, 79, 95, 101, 139, and 142. Michelsen, Leslee Katrina. “Curating the ‘Islamic’: The Personal and the Political.” International Journal of Islamic Architecture 10:1 (2021), pp. 127–136. Michelsen, L.K. “Historical Calligraphy in Afghanistan.” In Contemporary Calligraphy from Afghanistan. Manama, Bahrain: Turquoise Mountain Foundation, 2007, pp. 7–8. Book Chapters Michelsen, Leslee Katrina. “A ‘Layered Lens” on the Arts of the Islamic World in the Contemporary Pacific.” In Onur Ozturk and Sam Bowker (eds.), Deconstructing the Myths of Islamic Art. Oxford: Routledge, 2022. Michelsen, Leslee Katrina and Stefan Masarovic. “Collaborative Investigations of a Monumental Seljuq Stucco Panel.” In Sheila Canby et al (eds.), The Seljuqs and their Successors: Art, Culture, History. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 2020, pp. 228–244. Michelsen, Leslee Katrina. “Architecture in Iran and Central Asia 650 – 1250 CE.” In Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture (21st edition). Royal Institute of British Architects, London: Bloomsbury Press, 2019, pp. 558–578. Dobbin, Claire and Leslee Katrina Michelsen, “Engaging the Olfactory: Scent in the Arts, Cultures, and Museums of the Islamic World.” In The Senses from Antiquity to the Renaissance. Oxford: Routledge, 2018, pp. 107–134. Michelsen, Leslee Katrina and Johanna Olafsdotter. “Telling Tales: Investigating a Mina’i Bowl.” In Roxburgh, David (ed.), Seeing the Past—Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture: Essays in Honor of Renata Holod. Leiden: Brill, 2014, pp. 66–87. Notes, Précis, and Reviews Michelsen, Leslee Katrina. “In Cairo, Artists Use Pixels, Cyborgs, and More to Examine Technology and Belief,” Hyperallergic, 9 March 2020. Michelsen, L.K. and Timothy M. Penn, “Late Antique Glass from Qaratepe (Barda Rayon), Azerbaijan,” Journal of Glass Studies 58 (2017), pp. 16–21. Michelsen, Leslee Katrina. “The Architectural Competition for the Bamiyan Cultural Centre, Afghanistan,” The International Journal of Islamic Architecture 5/2 (2016), pp. 431–434. Michelsen, L.K. “God Taught Man by the Pen: Calligraphy in Afghan Culture.” In Loewen, Arley and Josette McMichael (eds.), Images of Afghanistan: Exploring Afghan Culture Through Art and Literature. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 212–215. With D.C. Thomas et al. ”Recent Work at Kabul National Museum and Kabul University.” Newsletter of British Institute of Persian Studies 33 (2008), pp. 13–17. UNESCO World Heritage Documents With Williams, Tim et al. Periodic Reporting Cycle 2, Section II: State Historical and Cultural Park ‘Ancient Merv’,” World Heritage Properties, UNESCO, 1 July 2012. Michelsen, Leslee K. “Comparative Analysis.” In Muhesen, Sultan et al. Al Zubarah Archaeological Site: Nomination Document for Inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Doha: Qatar Museums Authority, January 2011, pp. 92–116. Encyclopedia Entries Michelsen, Leslee Katrina. “Jali.” In: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three, Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson, 2020. Michelsen, Leslee. “Afghanistan: Miniature Painting, Calligraphy, Woodcarving, Jewellery, Embroidery, Carpet Weaving, and Ceramics.” In The World Crafts Council – Asia Pacific Region Online Encyclopedia of Crafts, 2017. Michelsen, Leslee Katrina. “Islamic Archaeology and Art History.” In Smith, Claire (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. New York: Springer, 2012. |
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