Angelica Modabber Billa is a writer and independent curator based in California and New York. She received her PhD from Columbia University in 2025, and her dissertation focused on the intersection of religion, art history, and the history of mathematics in 17th century Italy. The Middle East Institute at Columbia promotes the interdisciplinary study of the Middle East, North Africa, together with the associated regions of Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and related global communities.