Wihad Al-Tawil is an Arab-American graduate student, writer and artist living in Detroit, Michigan.  She is currently completing her Master’s thesis in Art History at Wayne State University and specializes in the Arab-Islamic cultural and artistic contributions to the European Renaissance.  Wihad serves as a graduate teaching assistant at Wayne State University for the department of Art & Art History since August 2013, where she teaches undergraduate students the history of art from the prehistoric to modern/contemporary periods.  Wihad’s academic interests include African and Arab-Islamic art and art history, art theory, as well as civil rights history, race and society as it pertains to contemporary American culture.  Wihad’s writing is in such publications as the University of Michigan Meeting of Minds Journal of  Undergraduate Research for her paper, “Rubens and the Adoration” in 2009, in the University of Michigan-Dearborn Exhibition Catalog Pursuit of Faith: Etchings by Rembrandt in the Thrivent Collection of Religious Art for her essay entitled “Rembrandt and Jan Van Vliet: Descent from the Cross, 1633” in 2010 and by Casablanca Hassan II University, Morocco’s ARAMFO 2014 International Conference Book for her paper entitled “Evidence of Ancient African Influence in the Mediterranean” in 2015.

Wihad credits her father, Dr. Hashim Al-Tawil, who is also an artist and art historian, with opening her eyes to the world of art history and allowing her to explore critical intellectual thinking on a daily basis.  Wihad’s parents emigrated from Iraq to America in the 1980s. She attributes her diverse cultural background and upbringing to her profound interest in bridging cultures and broadening understandings of humanity.