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Dr. Jamal J. Elias
Director

Dr. Elias is Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies and South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also a member of the graduate faculty in Near Eastern Studies and Ancient History.

He has written and lectured widely on various aspects of Islamic art, literature, history and culture; his publications include a book on the culture of truck decoration in Pakistan (On Wings of Diesel: Identity, Imagination and Truck Decoration in Pakistan, 2011) and a major work on the perception of religious art in the Islamic world (Aisha's Cushion: Religious Art, Perception and Practice in Islam, 2012).

He is also a photographer whose work has been featured in solo and group shows in galleries across the U.S.