Contact Information
101 Temple Buell Hall
611 E Lorado Taft Dr
M/C 620
Champaign, IL 61820
Biography
An historian of Islamic art and architecture, Dr. Ruggles’ research examines the medieval landscape of Islamic Spain and South Asia and the complex interrelationship of Islamic culture with Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism and the precise ways that religion and culture are often conflated in the study of these. She is the author of two award-winning books on gardens: Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain (2000), and Islamic Gardens and Landscapes (2008). Additionally she has edited or co-edited numerous works, including Women, Patronage, and Self-Representation in Islamic Societies (2000), the award-winning Sites Unseen: Landscape and Vision (2007), Cultural Heritage and Human Rights (2007), Intangible Heritage Embodied (2009), On Location (2012), and Islamic Art and Visual Culture: An Anthology of Sources (2011). Her most recent book is Tree of Pearls: The Extraordinary Architectural Patronage of the 13th-Century Egyptian Slave-Queen Shajar al-Durr (2020).
Education
University of Pennsylvania, History of Art, M.A., and PhD.
Harvard University, Visual and Environmental Studies, A.B, cum laude.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, School of Architecture
Professor, Program in Medieval Studies
Professor, Gender and Women's Studies
Professor, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
External Links
Highlighted Publications
Ruggles, D. F. (Ed.) (2011). Islamic art and visual culture: An Anthology of Sources. Wiley-Blackwell. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405154020.html
Ruggles, D. F. (2016). Islamic Gardens and Landscapes. Koç University Press.
Recent Publications
Bosworth, C. E., & Ruggles, D. F. (2021). Nāʾīn. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & E. Rowson (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (3 ed.). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_35350
Hirschler, K., & Ruggles, D. F. (2021). Badr al- Dīn Luʾluʾ. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & E. Rowson (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (3 ed.). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_25101
Ruggles, D. F. (2021). Cemeteries and funerary architecture. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & E. Rowson (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (3 ed.). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_24613
Ruggles, D. F. (2021). Cyprus art and architecture. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & E. Rowson (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (3 ed.). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_32986
Ruggles, D. F. (2021). From Garden to Landscape: Lessons from the Taj and the Alhambra. International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 10(1), 89-98. https://doi.org/10.1386/ijia_00031_1