Affiliate Lunch Talk Muslim Women and Architectural Patronage
On February 6, 2026 the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity hosted its annual Faculty Affiliate Lecture bringing Dr. D. (Dede) Fairchild Ruggles to talk about "Muslim Women and the Architectural Patronage... and Biography"
 

Talk Description: Women have been important patrons of major works of architecture in the Islamic world historically, a phenomenon that reveals their social agency and can illuminate their lives even when they are barely mentioned in historical texts. They were almost all empowered by wealth and proximity to powerful men. But coming from different social and ethnic backgrounds, some of them high born, others emerging from enslavement, their reasons for patronage differed. 

This event was co-sponsored by the Center for Global Studies and the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies