Dr. Diba is an expert on the Qajar period of Iran. During her tenure as Curator of Islamic Art at the Brooklyn Museum, she organized and researched the ground-breaking exhibition and catalogue Royal Persian Painting: the Qajar epoch, 1785-1925. More recently she has served as Visiting Professor at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture. She was the Director and Chief Curator of the Negarestan Museum of 18th and 19th century Iranian Art from its inception in 1975 until 1978. She has also served as an advisor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum, The Louvre, the Textile Museum of Washington, D.C., The Guggenheim Museum and the Mobil Oil Corporation.