Beeta Baghoolizadeh

Bio

Beeta Baghoolizadeh is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Her book, The Color Black: Enslavement and Erasure in Iran (Duke University Press, 2024) won several awards, including the Wesley-Logan Prize from the American Historical Association and the Paul E. Lovejoy Prize from the Journal of Global Slavery.

Contributions

Blurring or Focusing Enslavement: Photography and The Color Black

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In May 2025, Tamara Lanier’s court cases against Harvard University for the possession of daguerreotypes featuring her ancestors finally resulted in a settlement. These high-profile cases, which hinged on her familial claims to two photographs in Harvard’s collections, have inspired conversations around archival practices, ownership, and consent in photography. In the mid-nineteenth century, Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz had photographs taken of enslaved African Americans, including two named...

Tags: photography archives