Dr Fahmida Suleman

Bio

Dr. Fahmida Suleman is Senior Curator of ROM’s Islamic World collections and cross-appointed as an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto (status only). Since joining ROM, she has curated Unmasking the Pandemic: From Personal Protection to Personal Expression (2021–2022); Being and Belonging: Contemporary Women Artists from the Islamic World and Beyond (2023–2024); and Picnics and Pastimes in 17th-century Iran (2024–2025). Prior to this, she was Phyllis Bishop Curator for the Modern Middle East at the British Museum and co-curated the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World (2018).

Fahmida is committed to curating projects that seek out new audiences, engage visitors on contemporary global issues, and feature multifaceted narratives about the peoples of the Islamic world and the diaspora, including those of marginalized voices, representing diverse faith communities, makers, and artists. Her fieldwork focuses on traditions of silversmithing in the Arabian Peninsula, with a focus on the women silversmiths of the Sultanate of Oman. She is planning an exhibition on dress and jewellery traditions of the Arab world based on the ROM’s newly acquired Widad Kawar Collection of Arab Dress and Heritage Arts. She is also an assisting curator on ROM’s forthcoming exhibition, The Indian Ocean: Monsoon Worlds (2026).

Accreditations and affiliations

• DPhil (PhD) (Oxford), MSt (MA) (Oxford), BA Hons (University of Toronto)
• Associate Professor, Near and Middle East Civilizations (status only) and Art History (non-budgetary cross-appointment), University of Toronto
• Founding Co-Chair, Islamic Art and Material Culture Collaborative (IAMCC), Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Toronto
• Advisory Board, Journal of Islamic Art and Architecture
• Project Advisor, Canada Post Annual Eid Stamp
   

Subject areas of expertise/comfort 

• Medieval art and material culture of the Islamic world, with a focus on iconography, arts of the Fatimid period, and the material culture of Shiism
• Middle Eastern and Central Asian textiles and jewellery
• Critical approaches to displaying Islamic visual and material culture in museums
• Contemporary & diasporic arts of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia

Talks given & papers written

• Being and Belonging: Contemporary Women Artists from the Islamic World and Beyond. Toronto, New Haven and London: ROM and Yale University Press, 2023.
• Co-authored with L. Akbarnia. “Transforming Curatorial Practices for the Global Museum: Reflections on The British Museum’s Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World.” Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World, Vol.3/2 (2023), pp. 299–342.
• Textiles from the Middle East and Central Asia: The Fabric of Life (London: Thames & Hudson and British Museum, 2017.
• “Globalization in the Medieval World: Chinese and Central Asian Artistic Inspirations in the Islamic Mediterranean,” Hanny & Najet Hassan Lecture, Western University and UAAC Conference 2024 (Oct 2024)
•  “Crafting Conversations: Discourses on the Craft Heritage of the Islamic World – Past, Present and Future,” 8-part online series, IAMCC, (Oct 2020 – Apr 2021).
• “Making their mark: women silversmiths from Oman – Meet the researchers,” With M. Al-Wardi, M. S. Dorr, Z. Klink-Hoppe, and A. Mongiatti, British Museum, online (Nov 2023).

Media

“At the ROM, female artists from the Islamic world hunt for metaphors in Being and Belonging,” - Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail, 21 Jul 2023.

“From cockroach-festooned airport chairs to a razor-blade dress—women artists of the Islamic world shine at ROM,”  - interview with Janiece Campbell, Toronto Star, 14 Jul 2023.

“25 femmes du monde islamique mises en valeur au Musée royal de l’Ontario,”  - interview with Hadrien Volle, Radio-Canada, 29 Jun 2023.

“Celebrating Eid al-Fitr,”  - interview with Candace Daniel on Global News (TV), Apr 2023.