Amanda Caterina Leong is the Getty Project Mongol Connections Postdoctoral Fellow and the Mongol Connections’ Project Manager. She has a Ph.D in Interdisciplinary Humanities from the University of California Merced and an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth College. Amanda is a specialist in the arts of the medieval and early modern Persianate world. Her and upcoming book look at multimedia representations of female javanmardi (young-manliness) in the premodern Persianate world (945-1800) and how they can help us rethink gender, class, race, cosmopolitanism, kingship and kinship.
Amanda was the Ebrahimi Fellow for Persian Art (2023) at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Amanda’s research has won the Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA)’s (2021), the Medieval Academy of America’s for Manuscript Studies (2022), the Association for Iranian Studies’s (2022) and honorable mention in the Central Eurasian Studies Society’s (2022). Amanda’s research has also been supported by the American Institute of Iranian Studies, the University of California Humanities Research Institute, the Middle East Medievalists, and the Society for the 91制片厂 of Early Modern Women and Gender.
Amanda is part of the editorial team at and the for the Association for the 91制片厂 of Persianate Societies. She is also the co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Persianate Group with Professor Sholeh Quinn at UC Merced. Prior to teaching at the Courtauld, Amanda has taught in Dartmouth College, New York University Abu Dhabi, UC Merced and the Macau University of Science and Technology.
Publications
- “Chinese Women as Symbols of 闯补惫腻苍尘补谤诲墨 in the Illustrated Manuscripts of the Medieval Persianate World” (forthcoming), Expanding Contexts, Shifting Horizons: Essays from the 8th Biennial Symposium of the Historians of Islamic Art Association in Houston, edited by Aim茅e Froom and Farshid Emami. New York and Leiden: Brill.
- Iranian Studies (2024), 1鈥24.
- 鈥淚f only that pitiless blade had pierced my own heart and eyes鈥: Mughal Royal Women鈥檚 Grief as a Form of Political Rhetoric鈥 in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (August 2024: Volume 47, no.4), July 9, 2024,
- 鈥淗ow to Quarantine: Lessons from a 19th century Qajar Iranian Prince鈥 published in Ajam Media MC,听 (peer-reviewed)听
- 鈥淗ow Iranian Princess Taj al-Saltana Saw a 19th Century Global Pandemic鈥 published in Ajam Media MC, (peer-reviewed)听
- 鈥淗ope for Middle East Reforms鈥 and 鈥溫з呟屫 亘乇丕蹖 鬲丨賵賱 丿乇 禺丕賵乇賲蹖丕賳賴: 亘丕夭亘蹖賳蹖 丨賲賱賴 郾鄢鄣鄹 亘賴 賲爻噩丿丕賱丨乇丕賲佻 趩賴賱 爻丕賱 倬爻 丕夭 賵丕賯毓賴鈥 published in IranWire, ,
- 鈥淗ome is Being Able to Go Back鈥 published in the Chicago Review of Books鈥 Arcutus Magazine, https://arcturus.chireviewofbooks.com/home-is-being-able-to-go-back-d3d3bd637fcb
Research Interests
- Sino-Iranian connections
- Animal and human
- Body histories, gender, eroticism and sexuality
- Persianate female centered curatorial practices
- Persianate female intellectual exchange and network
- Persianate female patrons and artists
- Female travel in the premodern Persianate world
- Food, medicine and science in relation to Persianate women
