About the Speaker
Brown alumna, Alia Al-Senussi PhD, is a cultural strategist, writer, patron, public speaker, and academic. As an active member of the contemporary art world, she has for many years been connecting museums, institutions, art professionals, and artists, from the Middle East, the UK, Europe, and Asia with the aim of growing cultural ecosystems. For more than a decade, some of her focus has been dedicated to integrating Saudi Arabia’s cultural sector into the international art world. This has been achieved by bringing many international figures from the art world to Saudi Arabia, thereby establishing ongoing cultural ties, and most recently with the highly celebrated inaugural edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale launched in December 2021 which Al-Senussi was integral in creating and producing.
Al-Senussi is a member of the Tate Modern Advisory Council (London), the Strategic Advisory Panel of the Delfina Foundation (London), the Board of Trustees of The Showroom (London), Ikon Gallery (UK), the Board of Trustees of FUNTASIA/Elisa Sednaoui Foundation (UK / Egypt / Italy), the Board of Governors of Aiglon College (Switzerland) as well as a member of Therme Advisory Board (Germany) and the UCCA Contemporary Circle (China).
She continues to serve as a founding member of the Tate's Acquisitions Committee for the Middle East and North Africa, the Board of 1:54 The African Art Fair, and the Middle East Circle of the Guggenheim, the Middle East Studies Advisory Committee at Brown University, as well as the Board of Patrons of Art Dubai, having played an integral role in the founding of the fair.
Alia Al-Senussi has a PhD in politics from SOAS (London), in which she examines the nexus of power and cultural patronage, featuring Saudi Arabia as a case study. She graduated Magna Cum Laude in International Relations (honors) and Middle East Studies from Brown University and holds an MA in Political Science from Brown and an MSc in Law, Anthropology, and Society from the London School of Economics.