Before starting her PhD at Harvard University, Veronika studied History of Art and Middle Eastern studies in Vienna, Istanbul, and Leiden. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the parameters of knowledge transfer and cultural exchange from the Timurid courts of Central Asia to the domain of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I (r. 1413-1421). Veronika is particularly interested in the actors and social groups, who preserve and spread technical and scientific know-how in times of concurrent warfare. This topical concern lead Veronika to the Arab States Unit of UNESCO, where she worked on capacity building and the preservation of skills in the context of the reconstruction of heritage sites in Syria and Iraq. During this time she also contributed to the joint position paper of the World Bank Group and UNESCO on Culture in City Reconstruction and Recovery (2018). Prior to this internship, Veronika curated an exhibition in the Islamic Art Museum of the Pergamonmuseum, for which she received a grant by the European Union, and spent a summer on a Mellon fellowship at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She recently received the Bert and Sally de Vries Fellowship of ACOR, the American Council for Oriental Research in Jordan for 2020-2021. Veronika intends to employ the grant for her fieldwork on displaced Syrian craftsmen in Amman, Jordan.

Awards and Fellowships held during her PhD:
Aga Khan Awards for summer research and language study: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
Porter Fellowship for research in Iran and Uzbekistan, 2017-2018
Derek Bok Teaching Award for excellence in undergraduate education, spring 2017, fall 2019
ISP International Grant of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2020
Bert and Sally de Vries Fellowship, ACOR Jordan, 2020-2021