Dr. David Sadighian

Biography

David Bijan Sadighian is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, specializing in the history of architecture, infrastructure, and material culture in the Atlantic World during the eighteenth century. His research focuses on the intersection of history and design, bridging disciplines such as art history, global history, sociology, and political thought. Currently, he is working on a book titled “The World Composition: Beaux-Arts Design Internationalism in the Age of Empire,” which investigates how architectural composition contributed to the rise of international order during European colonial expansion from around 1870 to 1930. This project examines the circulation of so-called 'universal' design principles from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and their role in imagining new institutions and structures of global governance while generating various local frictions and modes of resistance. He has conducted research in numerous countries and participated in scholarly communities at the Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte in Paris and the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History at Harvard University. David’s interests also extend to curatorial work, and he has organized exhibitions, including one at Harvard Art Museums on post-war German art. He holds a BA and M.E.D. from Yale University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Research Interests