New PhD Students join the School in 2010

Aleksejevas AleksandrasSasha is a sculptor who makes bronze icons. His research will look at the origin and meaning of sacral relief sculpture and he plans to write a manual for iconographical sculptors explaining how to make a bronze icon and encouraging a new appreciation of the importance of sacred relief within the context of contemporary iconography.Christabel AndersonChristabel is an MA graduate from the School who will continue and deepen her research into the iconography of the British isles working on icon painting and illumination. She hopes to create an appropriate iconography for the British Saints based on research of remaining medieval iconography from the British isles. Ayesha GamietAyeesha is also an MA graduate of the Prince’s School. Her research is on the reflection of the Divine Names of God in Islamic art and architecture and she will create artwork inspired by the Divine Attributes.

Nevine Nassar

Nevine is an architect who wishes to look at the experience of space as sacred. Using medieval Islamic architecture as an example of an architecture that reflects the harmony, order and peace inherent in Nature and creates an experiential presence in this world of Divine grace, she hopes to integrate this into her designs for contemporary settings. Idries TrevethanIdries studied as a PED student for one term at the School. He returns to work on his PhD after spending time studying and working as an art conservator. He found that work in art conservation, while successful in physical analysis of the pieces, was unable to quantify other elements that are obviously present in the works. His research will be based on a 12th century poem by Nizami describing Seven Beauties and will relate this to the symbolism of colour. He will be researching the alchemy of colour and completing pieces in relation to each colour from the poem. In this way he hopes to deepen his own work and perhaps help to open paths for conservators to appreciate other dimensions in their work as well. Mamdouh SakrMamdouh is the Programme Manager for our educational programme at the Foustat Crafts Centre in Cairo. He will be studying the traditional vernacular architecture of Egypt following on Hassan Fathy’s groundbreaking research from the 20th century. Mamdouh intends to broaden the work already done to include other regions, visually documenting what remains of the traditional architecture, and attempting to analyse traditional and modern architecture in relation to the entire range of needs of its human inhabitants.