She received her Ph.D. in art history from UCLA, and, prior to joining AKPIA, served as an assistant professor of art history at Rice University. Her research addresses issues of urban and architectural history in early modern and modern Islamic societies. She teaches courses on theories of preservation practice and architecture and gender, and is currently completing a book manuscript entitled The Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial Architecture and Urban Experience in Aleppo in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.