Hossein studies Persian art and architecture, focusing on medieval architecture of the Persianate world, Islamic pottery, and the history of collecting. His current project orients toward recontextualizing museum objects and its impact on the spatial perception of historical monuments. At Pitt, he will focus on luster tiles and examine their impact on shaping new interiors in Persian architecture in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. His MA thesis entitled “A Lustrous Shrine: Recontextualizing luster tiles of Ali b. Ja'far shrine in Qum” won the 2023 Early Modern Worlds Biennial Graduate Essay Prize at the University of Pittsburgh.

Hossein holds a Bachelor of Architecture and an M.A. in architectural studies. Before joining Pitt, he worked as an interior architect and collaborated with several research institutions, including Encyclopedia Islamica Foundation in Iran. Based on his master's thesis, he wrote The Great Mosque of Varamin: Recognizing the Process of Formation and Evolution, which offered a new interpretation of the building's history, original form, and function. This book received the 12th Farabi International Award on the humanities and Islamic studies in 2021.