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
Debra L. Mitchell Chair, Landscape Architecture
Professor, Landscape Architecture
Professor, School of Architecture
Director, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Professor, Gender and Women's Studies
Professor, Women & Gender in Global Perspectives
Professor, European Union Center
Professor, Center for Global Studies
Professor, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Professor, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
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
Ruggles, D. F. (2022). From Garden to Landscape: Lessons from the Taj and the Alhambra. In M. Gharipour, & D. E. Coslett (Eds.), Islamic Architecture Today and Tomorrow (Re)defining the Field (Critical Studies in Architecture of the Middle East). Intellect Books.
Ruggles, D. F. (2022). Podcast interview: Tree of Pearls. Digital or Visual Products, New Books Network. https://newbooksnetwork.com/tree-of-pearls
Ruggles, D. F. (2021). Cemeteries and funerary architecture. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & E. Rowson (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_24613
Ruggles, D. F. (2021). “Cultivars and Calamities in al-Andalus: On Nature and Human Will”. Paper presented at 9th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art at
Virginia Commonwealth University, Doha
, Doha, Qatar.
Ruggles, D. F. (2021). Cyprus art and architecture. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & E. Rowson (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_32986