Episode 22: Sabiha Al Khemir

It’s safe to assume that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is unaware that America’s oldest treaty is with Morocco, the first nation to recognize the fledging United States in December 1777. The breadth of American ignorance about Islamic history, art, and culture is unfathomable, but fortunately we have Dr. Sabiha Al Khemir joining this episode, sharing details of her journey from Tunisia to a PhD from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, to becoming the founding director of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. As a curator who has shaped and contributed to multiple exhibitions presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, the Dallas Museum of Art, and elsewhere, she is a writer, novelist, illustrator, and producer, and today serves as consulting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology.