Rachel Alban

Rachel Alban is a CHASE-funded PhD Candidate and Associate Lecturer at The Courtauld Institute of Art, focusing on the cultural and intellectual contexts of Persian manuscript painting. Her research examines the role of size, scale, and materiality in 15th–16th-century Persian miniatures, particularly in Nizami’s Khamseh. Supervised by Sussan Babaie and advised by Susie Nash, she bridges manuscript studies, cross-media aesthetics, and text-image dynamics.

Research Interests: Size and scale in art, miniaturisation, manuscript illumination, framing mechanisms, and materiality. Her work challenges reductive interpretations of Persian painting by analyzing its technical and conceptual intricacies.

Conference Papers: Presented at Courtauld and Yale events on topics like cognitive framing in Timurid manuscripts, the production of wonder in Persian art, and digital-age reinterpretations of miniaturisation. She also co-organizes academic colloquia and seminars.

Teaching: Graduate Diploma Teaching Assistant at The Courtauld, including roles in foundational courses and summer programs. Her educational background includes an MA in History of Art from the University of York and a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Oxford.