Lydia Harrington

I specialize in Middle Eastern art and architecture and Syrian and Lebanese American history. In 2023-2024, I was the Senior Curator for The Syria Museum, an initiative of the non-profit Syrian American Council that focuses on Syrian cultural heritage and the Syrian diaspora. Prior to that, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT in 2022-2023, where I revised my book manuscript on institutional architecture and educational reform at the end of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in Damascus, Beirut, Baghdad, and Istanbul. I earned my PhD from Boston University’s History of Art and Architecture Department in 2022, having researched at numerous museums, libraries, archives, and architectural sites in Lebanon, Turkey, and the UK for my dissertation. I currently do curatorial, research, and archival work for arts and culture organizations.