Natasha Morris is a Teaching Fellow at 91Ó°ÊÓ and Lecturer in the History of Art at SOAS, University of London. Her research focuses on the art and visual culture of Iran and the broader Persianate world during the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, with particular interests in gender, the body, material culture and the relationship between visual representation and the construction of social and cultural identities.
Her work examines how images and objects participated in the negotiation of masculinity, nationhood and religious identity during the Qajar period (c.1789–1925), considering media ranging from monumental painting and lacquerware to photography, lithography, playing cards and illustrated manuscripts. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from art history, gender studies, sensory history and material culture studies, her research explores the ways in which works of art functioned as active agents in shaping social experience and articulating competing ideas of modernity, empire and Iranian identity.
Natasha completed her PhD at 91Ó°ÊÓ as an AHRC/CHASE Doctoral Scholar, after completing both an MA in Persianate Painting from the 14th-17th Centuries (Iran Heritage Foundation Scholar) and undergraduate degree in Art History at 91Ó°ÊÓ. Her doctoral research on masculinity in Qajar visual culture, entitled ‘Lions and Sons: the masculine image in Qajar Iran (1789 – 1925)’, supervised by Professor Sussan Babaie and Dr Satish Padiyar,Ìýforms the basis of her first monograph. She has published extensively on Iranian art, gender and visual culture, and her current research also considers the sensory dimensions of images and objects, collecting histories, museum display, and the role of material culture in cross-cultural exchange.
Alongside her research, Natasha teaches across Islamic, Persian and Asian art histories at both undergraduate and postgraduate level at 91Ó°ÊÓ, SOAS, the V&A, Christie’s, Effat University in Jeddah and Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, Dammam. Her teaching brings together close visual analysis with critical approaches drawn from global art history, historiography and museum studies, encouraging students to consider artworks as dynamic participants in wider social, political and cultural histories.
Education
BA History of Art – Courtauld Institute of Art (2010-2013)
MA History of Art – Courtauld Institute of Art (2013-2014) |ÌýSpecial Option: Persianate Painting – From the Mongols to the Safavids (14thÌý– 17th Centuries) Iran Heritage Foundation Research Assistant and Courtauld Scholar (2013-2014)
PhD History of Art – Courtauld Institute of Art (2016 – 2020)
Teaching
BA3 Special Option: Art and the Modern Nation: from Medieval Islam to post-modern Iran (2022/23) and (2026/67)
BA1 Display as Discourse: Persian Art in London Collections (2021/22)
BA2 & Grad Dip Constellations:Ìý‘From Shiraz to Beijing: A Taste for the Wondrous in 15thÌý°ä±ð²Ô³Ù³Ü°ù²â Persian Arts’ Autumn Term (2018/2019) and (2019/2020).
Short Courses Autumn: Making Sense of the Arts of Islam (2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, 2026)
Short Courses Autumn: Introduction to the Arts of Islam (2019, 2020)
‘Introduction to the Arts of Islam’, Autumn School Short Course with Dr Babaie, 91Ó°ÊÓ (September 2016)
BA1 Foundations – Block 4 ‘Urban Sites and Sights: Istanbul, Isfahan and Delhi in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’ (2016, 2017)
Research interests
Gender and Sexuality
Masculinity
Iran
19thÌý°ä±ð²Ô³Ù³Ü°ù²â
Material Culture
Games, vice, sociability
Modern and Contemporary Art from the SWANA region
Multisensory display methods and exhibitionary practice
Recent conference papers
August 2026, Association for Iranian Studies Fifteenth Biennial Iranian Studies Conference, Utrecht University, ‘The Bibi of Pentacles: Playing Cards, Touch, and the Erotic Female Body in Qajar Visual Culture’
June 2024, SOAS Islamic Art Circle, ‘The Bibi-Lakkat Complex: Ludic Arts in Qajar Iran’
October 2024, Association for Iranian Studies Fourteenth Biennial Iranian Studies Conference, ‘The Bibi-Lakkat Complex: Representations of Femininity and Female Responses to Vice in the Ludic Arts of Qajar Iran’
December 2021, SOAS Islamic Art Lecture Series, ‘The King and I’ Qajar Portrait Miniatures
September 2020, Christie’s, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, ‘Reading Qajar Masculinity Through Literary Archetypes’
March 2020, Cambridge Lectures in Islamic Art, Pembroke College Cambridge, ‘War Games: Qajar Playing Cards’
April 2019, Symposia Iranica, University of St Andrews, ‘The King and I: Qajar Portrait Miniatures’.ÌýWinner of award for best paper on Iranian Art History sponsored by Cambridge Centre for Shahnameh Studies
June 2017, Beyond Men, University of Oxford, ‘Coffeehouse Heroes: Homosociability, Masculinity, and the Religio-Literary Archetype’.
September 2015, 8th European Conference of Iranian Studies, The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, ‘Bodies of Men: Masculinity and warfare in the Qajar Era’. Panel Sponsored by the British Institute of Persian Studies.
April 2015, Symposia Iranica, Downing College, University of Cambridge, ‘Opening the Face of Isfahan: Locating Portraiture in Safavid Single Page Painting (1600-1650)’.ÌýHonourable Mention for best paper on Iranian Art History, sponsored by Brill.
Other academic activity
Lecturer, SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme (2022-present)
Myojin-Nadar Project Curator: Middle East Art, British Museum (2019 – 2020)
British Institute of Persian Studies – Student Members Committee (2015 – 2017)
Co-organiser, ‘Recasting Reproduction’, International Conference, 91Ó°ÊÓ, November 2017
Co-organiser ‘Converging on the Object: 91Ó°ÊÓ Metal Bag’, International Conference, 91Ó°ÊÓ, 10thÌýMay 2014
Exhibition Catalogues
Recipe for a Poem – Azadeh Razaghdoost, ex. cat (Sophia Contemporary Gallery, Mayfair November 2016)
Afruz Amighi: Echo’s Chamber,Ìýex. catÌý(Sophia Contemporary Gallery, 2017)
Reza Derakshani: Hunting the Light, ex. cat (Sophia Contemporary Gallery, 2018)
Veronica Brovall: Wear the Heat, ex. cat (Sophia Contemporary Gallery, 2018)
‘The Poetry of Landscape’ in Abbas Kiarostami (L’APAGE, 2019)
Books
M. Afkhami, N. Morris, S. Neshat, N. Azimi,ÌýUnbound Spirit: Iranian Women ArtistsÌý(Phaidon/Monacelli, 2026)
M. Zenganini, N. Morris and C. Cheong (eds.), Portraiture in Asia: Remaking the SubjectÌý(Manchester University Press, 2026)
N. Morris and S.ÌýSooudÌýAl-Qassemi (eds.),ÌýHudood: rethinking boundariesÌý(Kaph Books, 2024)Ìý
V. Porter, C. Tripp and N. Morris, Reflections: Contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa (British Museum Company, 2020)
S Babaie, V, Porter, N. Morris, Honar: The Afkhami Collection of Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art (Phaidon, 2017)
Newspaper & Magazine Articles
‘I Saved My Belly Dancer – Interview with Youssef Nabil’ | REORIENT Magazine (February 2016)
‘How Iraqi Are You? – Interview with Hayv Kahraman’ | REORIENT Magazine (October 2015)
‘Iran Goes Back to the Future at the Venice Biennale |ÌýThe GuardianÌý(18th May 2015)
‘An Anthology of the Final Decade: Exploring Iran’s Past Through Art’ |ÌýThe GuardianÌý(19th March 2015)
‘Infinite Possibility: Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’ |ÌýThe GuardianÌý(27th December 2014)
‘From Institution to Iranian Revolution: Unedited History 1960-2014’ |ÌýThe GuardianÌý(3rd December 2014)
‘Iran: Unedited History’ | REORIENT Magazine (September 2014)
‘Strange Fruits of a Fascination’ | REORIENT Magazine (February 2014)
Interview with Tamara Abdul Hadi – NeverLazy Magazine (Autumn 2013)
Interview with Rose Issa – NeverLazy Magazine (Winter 2012)