A specialist on the art of Iran and Central Asia, Ladan Akbarnia joined the Brooklyn Museum in 2007. Previously, she held teaching positions at Smith and Wheaton Colleges in Massachusetts, and interned or worked at the Harvard Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Iran. She has also served as a consultant to the Aga Khan Museum Collection and to the virtual museum, artsoftheislamicworld.org. Dr. Akbarnia received her B.A. from Vassar College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, where she co-curated the exhibition The Tablet and the Pen: Drawings from the Islamic World. At the Brooklyn Museum, she has organized several installations in the Islamic galleries. A renovation of the Islamic galleries is planned for 2009, along with an exhibition on Sufism in the arts of the Islamic world.