Ali Mousavi

Ali Mousavi is a Pourdavoud Research Scholar and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Iranian Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.

He studied in Lyon, France, and took his BA in Art History, and his MA in Archaeology from the University of Lyon, France. He obtained his PhD in Near Eastern archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley.

He excavated in France, Turkey, and Iran, and contributed to the nomination of a number of archaeological sites and monuments on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. He is the author of a book on the site of Persepolis (Persepolis: Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder), and co-editor of two books: Ancient Iran from the Air, and Excavating an Empire. He has published on various aspects of Iranian art and archaeology, and holds a particular interest in the archaeology of Iranian Empires, from the Achaemenids to the Sasanians, and the history of archaeology in Iran and the Near East. He worked as a curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 2006 to 2013. He teaches Iranian art and archaeology at UCLA.