In summer 2026, undergraduate student, Loris Yao, and graduate student, Amirali (Amir) Ardekanian, got to participate in a very unique internship offered by the Art History department: an internship at the Department of Islamic Art in the Louvre Museum in Paris! They stayed in the heart of Paris for a whole month from June 27th to July 27th, walking distance from the Louvre. They spent the work week interning at the Louvre, and took evenings and weekends to explore the beautiful city. Every Tuesday, Amir and Loris had an incredible, atypical opportunity as well to walk around the Louvre without any visitors present, since the Louvre is closed each week on Tuesdays.
While Amir was interning, he worked on a variety of projects, one of which was the Andre Godard archive (which he had previously researched at UCI). The collection has over 13,000 photographic materials, and Amir had the chance to organize and categorize the archive, and then research and arrange it. Amir was able to complete this long process and prepare two major groups of photos from Tehran and Fars provinces for publishing. Both projects were a massive but rewarding undertaking. Additionally, he was invited to review the photographic collection of the former founder and head of the Iranian Archaeology Center with two Louvre staff members, reviewing it closely, and figuring out whether or not it should be digitized in the future. All of these projects were great for Amir’s educational knowledge, and gave him practical experience in archival research and documentation. He also made lots of fantastic professional connections, and got to hear about research being done at the museum.
Loris worked on several different projects, mainly regarding research for future exhibitions. One project had to do with researching Islamic art in Chinese academia, and involved her creating a long bibliography of publications she discovered. She looked into places in China that maintain collections of Islamic art and do research on Islamic art to get ideas for future exhibitions and create connections with Chinese museums. Both of these projects allowed Loris to use her bilingual knowledge, which she doesn’t often get to do in Art History, and gave her impetus to keep exploring her new interest in how Chinese and Islamic art intersect. She also had the opportunity to work on tombstone verification for the Domaine de Chaalis Islamic art collection, which she said was rewarding but very challenging. Other small projects had Loris creating more bibliographies and translating Chinese sources for researchers to use.
During downtimes away from the Louvre, both interns explored the city and ate at a variety of delicious restaurants. Amir spent most of his time revisiting favorite spots, such as flea markets, parks, and museums (such as the Albert Kahn and Guimet museums). He took two days to do some research for his dissertation at the Bibliotheque nationale de France, where he examined a couple of photographic collections from the 1860s and 1900s. Loris spent her time going on stadium tours of favorite soccer teams, checking out as many museums as possible with Monet’s artwork (also visiting parks where he spent his time), and exploring local cafes. She went to Normandy to hike the Etretat cliffs, a beautiful piece of nature that she had been curious about for a while.
Both interns expressed thankfulness for this trip experience and shared that it was fulfilling both professionally and personally. They were both excited to keep pursuing their art history interests and got new inspirations while in Paris! Trips like this wouldn’t be possible without generous support from the Steckler Family Initiative in Art History, which has given students the chance to go on many outstanding trips. For more information on other Art History Department trips, please check out the Experiential Learning Page.
