The award recognises his doctoral dissertation, completed at the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History at the University of Bonn in 2025: Entangled Interdependencies and Littoral Singularities: Mosque Architecture in Malabar and the Lakshadweep Islands in the Age of Colonial Globalisms in the Indian Ocean.
Drawing on fieldwork at sixty-one sites, the dissertation examines mosque architecture in the drāviḍa-kerala mode across the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent, spanning the sixteenth to the early twentieth century. It proposes the concept of translittorality to account for the material practices and collaborative exchange that shaped these architectural traditions, challenging prevailing accounts within Islamic art history that have marginalised communities lacking a dynastic anchoring in conventional historiography.
The award ceremony and lecture, held by Jahfar and another awardee, will take place on 15 April 2026, 9:00–10:30 am PST, via Zoom. Registration is open via the UC Berkeley events page.
