Keelan Overton, Curator of Islamic Art at Shangri La, holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles (2011) and a Masters Degree in Art History from Williams College in Massachusetts (2004).  As Curator, Overton is primarily responsible for the research, interpretation and exhibition of the collections. 

Overton first came to Shangri La as an intern in 2003 and held the position of Assistant Curator in 2004-2005.  Before moving back to Oahu in June 2011, she worked as a Research Assistant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and also as an Instructor and Teaching Assistant at UCLA.  Her research concentrates on the art and architecture of early modern courts in the eastern Islamic world, particularly Iran and India, and her dissertation, which was supported by fellowships from the University of California and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, considered painting and book culture in the Deccani city of Bijapur.  Her publications include essays in Masters of Indian Painting I, 1100-1650 (Artibus Asiae, 2011) and Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition (Brill, 2012), contributions to Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts (Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2011), and an article entitled "From Pahlavi Isfahan to Pacific Shangri La: Reviving, Restoring, and Reinventing Safavid Aesthetics, c. 1920-40" (West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, 2012).