She holds a PhD on the subject of ‘The Waning of the Qizilbash’ from Princeton University, and her research interests focus on Shīʿah Islam, Sufism, and gender in early-modern Iran. She is the author of Mystics, Monarchs and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran (Cambridge, 2002), and she has contributed chapters to books including Iranian Civilization, from Antiquity to Present (Oxford, 2012), Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavi Iran (London, 2004), and Women in the Medieval Islamic World (London, 1998), as well as articles to journals including Iranian Studies. Professor Kathryn Babayan has been a Fellow of the Shīʿah Institute since February 2016.