PhD student Hossein Nakhaei won a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship

Hossein Nakhaei, a PhD student in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has received a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship.

Nakhaei, whose studies in the Department of History of Art and Architecture are advised by Professor Sahar Hosseini, is the second Pitt student to win the prestigious award for emerging researchers from the Mellon Foundation and American Council of Learned Societies.

His winning dissertation examines the transformation of 13th- and 14th-century Persian luster tiles from architectural elements into isolated museum artifacts following their widespread and violent removal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The fellowship will support Nakhaei’s efforts to explore the visual and sensory dimensions of the interiors where these tiles once resided, using simulation technologies and scientific methods. It also offers the scholar an opportunity to pursue professional training and mentorship in architectural simulation and other new methods in the scientific and technical study of material culture.

“These techniques will allow me to examine the possible interactions between the tiles and the individuals who once encountered them within sacred spaces,” he said.

Eventually, Nakhaei envisions having a career in museums, and he will gain firsthand experience in that world through a predoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in April 2026.