Holod earned her B.A. degree in Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto in 1964; her M.A. in History of Art from the University of Michigan in 1965, and her Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Harvard University in 1972. As a professor, she has supervised over fifty Ph.D. theses from students in a range of fields, including History of Art, Architecture, Urban Planning, Religious Studies, Middle East Studies, and Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World.
As a curator, Holod has created exhibitions in the United States (including “'From the Two Pens’: Line and Color in Islamic Art” at Williams College Museum of Art, October–December 2002,[8] “Archaeologists and Travelers in Ottoman Lands” at the Penn Museum, September 2010-June 2011[9]) and Turkey (“Osman Hamdi Bey and The Americans: Art, Diplomacy, Archaeology” at the Pera Museum, Istanbul, October 2011-January 2012).[10]
She serves on numerous advisory boards and committees, including the Advisory Board of Muqarnas: Annual in Islamic Art and Visual Culture (since 1999);[11] the Scientific Committee of the Fondation Max Van Berchem (since 2001);[12] the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Islamic Architecture (since 2012),[13] and the Advisory Board of Arts Asiatiques (since 2012).[14] Holod is a Senior Fellow of the Kolb Society at the Penn Museum (elected 1989), and has been honored with the King Fahd Award for Teaching the Architecture of Muslim Cultures (1986), the Islamic Environmental Design Achievement Award (2004), and the Provost’s Award for Mentorship of Graduate Students (2010).[15] Her former students published a festschrift in her honor (Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture: Essays in Honor of Renata Holod, edited by David J. Roxburgh) in 2014.[16]
Prof. Holod has supervised and mentored over fifty students at various institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, where she has overseen at least forty doctoral dissertations.
Holod is a past President of the Historians of Islamic Art Association (2007–10). She has been member of the Board of Trustees of The Ukrainian Museum since 2011, and President since 2013.[17]
