Saleem Al-Bahloly is assistant professor of art history at the American University of Beirut, specialising in 19th and 20th-century Middle Eastern art. He holds a PhD in anthropology from UC Berkeley and has completed postdoctoral fellowships at UC Santa Barbara, Johns Hopkins, and Forum Transregionale Studien.
Al-Bahloly's research explores the intersection of modern art and religious traditions as a source for contemporary critique. His current book project examines the 10th-century concept of truth as disclosure (kashf) and its re-emergence in the work of Iraqi artists Dia al-Azzawi and Shakir Hassan Al Said.
He has published articles on Kadhim Haidar's engagement with mourning rituals, Jewad Selim's reinterpretation of al-Wasiti, and Dia al-Azzawi's drawings of the Tel al-Zaatar massacre. In 2016, he collaborated with Qatar Museums to curate a major retrospective of Dia al-Azzawi's work developed from his doctoral dissertation.
