Mira Xenia Schwerda

Dr. Mira Xenia Schwerda is a historian of photography and new media, modern Middle Eastern art, and global print culture. Her book manuscript-in-progress, tentatively titled "Between Art and Propaganda: Photographing Revolution in Modern Iran (1905-1911)," focuses on the imagery of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and presents a new history of the visual narratives of political and social change brought about by the triad of the telegraph, printing press, and photography. Having received her PhD from Harvard in 2020, after completing an MA in the History of Art and Archaeology at Princeton and a Magister Artium in History and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Tübingen, she has previously worked at the Harvard Art Museums, where she curated the photography section of the exhibition Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran. Dr. Schwerda is also the co-editor of the journal 'Art in Translation,' a founding member and the former managing director of 'Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online,' and the co-founder of the 'Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series (VIAHSS).'