Participant Info

First Name
Harpreet
Last Name
Kaur
Country
United States
State
TX
Affiliation
University of St Thomas
Website URL
Keywords
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
MA

Personal Info

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About Me

Harpreet Kaur is a historian of South Asian and Persianate art and history whose work explores the relationship between visual culture, politics, and religion in early modern South Asia. Her research focuses on the Mughal Empire’s engagement with the wider Persianate and Islamic worlds through manuscript patronage, portraiture, and architecture, examining how visual and textual media were used to construct imperial authority and cultural identity.

Her scholarship situates Mughal art and historiography within the broader networks that connected South Asia, Iran, and Central Asia, tracing how these exchanges shaped intellectual life and political thought. She is particularly interested in the ethical and metaphysical dimensions of kingship represented in Persian and Indo-Islamic literary and artistic traditions, and in the ways gender, theology, and aesthetics informed the visual language of empire.

Kaur has presented her research at major national and international conferences, including the Association for Asian Studies, the International Congress on Medieval Studies, the International Medieval Congress at Leeds, and the American Society for Ethnohistory. Her current projects address Jesuit visual narratives at the Mughal court, the moral allegories of Nizami’s Haft Paykar, and the role of monstrous imagery as a form of knowledge in Islamicate manuscripts.

Her work draws extensively on manuscript and codicological study. She has examined Persian, Sanskrit, and Ethiopic manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center, Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. She has also received advanced training through the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia and the California Rare Book School at UCLA, with forthcoming study at the Australian and New Zealand Rare Book School.

Before entering academia, Kaur founded and managed an international jewelry business for nearly a decade. This experience informs her approach to teaching and research, bringing a global and interdisciplinary perspective to her understanding of cultural exchange and aesthetics.

As an Adjunct Professor of History at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Kaur teaches courses on South Asian history, Islamic art, and global cultural exchange. Her teaching emphasizes critical engagement with primary sources, visual literacy, and experiential learning through museum study. She also mentors undergraduate researchers, guiding them in the development and public presentation of their work. Kaur’s broader interests include the intellectual history of the early modern Atlantic world. Her research on Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an examines the relationship between Enlightenment thought, Islam, and religious freedom in early America, reflecting her commitment to connecting artistic and intellectual traditions across cultures.

Recent Publications

 

Media Coverage
Country Focus
India, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asian states
Expertise by Geography
Africa, Asia, East Asia, Middle East, South Asia
Expertise by Chronology
Medieval, Pre-17th century, 17th century, 18th century, Early Modern
Expertise by Topic
Art & Architectural History, Book History, Libraries & Archives, Literary History, Material Culture, Religion