Aphrodite Désirée Navab is an artist and writer based in New York City of Iranian and Greek descent (b. Isfahan, Iran). In 2004 she completed an Ed.D doctorate in Art Education at Columbia University. She received her BA magna cum laude in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard College in 1993. Her doctoral dissertation, “Unsaying Life Stories: A Comparative Analysis of the Autobiographical Art of Four Iranians,” is the first study specifically focused on the work of artists of the Iranian diaspora. A chapter from it is published in the Journal of Aesthetic Education, University of Illinois Press, Volume 41/2 (2007). The dissertation is published in its entirety as De-Orientalizing Iran: The Art of Sevruguin, Neshat, Navab, and Ghazel. Lampert Academic Publishing (2011).

Navab’s art has been featured in over one hundred exhibitions and is included in a number of permanent collections including: the Lowe Art Museum, the Harn Museum of Fine Arts, Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, Naples, Italy, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Arkansas State University.

Navab’s most recent solo exhibition, I Am Not a Miniature, was at Soho20 Chelsea in NYC (Oct.-Nov. 2013). In 2009, her art was featured in the museum exhibition and catalogue, Through the Lens: Photography from the Permanent Collection, at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami. The exhibition featured only 100 significant photographs from more than 1,000 photographic holdings from: Julia Margaret Cameron and Walker Evans to Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson.

Navab’s writing is published in six anthologies, from “Re-picturing Photography: A Language in the Making,” in Photographic Theory: An Historical Anthology (2014), edited by Andrew Hershberger, UK: Wiley Blackwell, and POWWOW: Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience, Short Fiction from Then to Now (2009), edited by Ishmael Reed, to Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora (2006), edited by Persis Karim.

Navab was Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Florida, after completing four years of teaching art studio and art education in the College of Fine Arts there as Adjunct and Visiting Assistant Professor (2000-5). She was Area Coordinator of the BFA and MFA creative photography programs (2003-4). She also taught graduate students in the MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) program at The School of Visual Arts (2008-9).

Currently, Navab serves on the boards of two independent and non-profit organizations. She is on the Committee of Twenty of Network 20/20 which helps prepare multi-generation leaders in the U.S. to participate meaningfully in the promotion of entrepreneurial diplomacy, trans-national problem solving, and global sustainability. network2020.org She is Vice President of AGAPW (The Association of Greek American Professional Women) whose mission is to promote community and leadership building among Greek-American women. agapw.org/site