Introduction & Keynote Address

Sheila S. Blair

Writing as Signifier of Islam

Sheila S. Blair, co-convener of the Hamad bin Khalifa symposia, shares the Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art at Virginia Commonwealth University with her husband Jonathan Bloom as well as the Norma Jean Calderwood University Professorship of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College. She is the author, co-author, or co-editor of seventeen books and hundreds of articles on virtually all aspects of Islamic art, including her prize-winning book, Islamic Calligraphy. Her special interest is the use of writing and its relationship to the visual arts.