Dr Veronika Poier, Associate Curator

Research summary

Dr Veronikia Poier, Associate curator at the History of Science Museum and Research Fellow in the History of Islamic Art and Material Culture at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS)

My interdisciplinary research focuses on knowledge exchange among artistic and scientific communities, with a particular interest in the actors and social groups who preserve and spread artistic and scientific knowledge in times of political change.

I received the Bert and Sally de Vries Fellowship of the American Council for Overseas Research (ACOR) in Jordan for fieldwork on displaced Syrian craftsmen in Mafraq.

I am also the co-editor of the book Ukrainian Cultural Heritage in Times of War, (Bloomsbury, forthcoming).

CV

Dr Veronika Poier is a Research Fellow in the History of Islamic Art and Material Culture at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS).

She oversees exhibitions, most recently the Ultimate Journey on the three holy sites in spring 2026 and the upcoming show Courtly Splendours on Mughal and Timurid art and science in autumn 2026.

She also works with contemporary artists and shared her academic expertise on Islamic paradise and gardens for On Paradise by Saad Qureshi at the Schwarzman Centre in Oxford, also in autumn 2026.

Before moving to Oxford, she co-curated a show on festive gatherings in Mughal and Deccani miniature paintings at the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, for which she received a grant from the European Union.

She holds a PhD in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University and previously taught Art History at Harvard, Political Humanities at Sciences Po, Islamic Art at Vienna University and material culture at Oxford University.