The academic background of Ahmad Zia Nawrang is closely related to archaeology and religion studies. He completed his B.A. in Archaeology at the University of Kabul, Afghanistan, and contributed to the project for the rescue of the Buddhist heritage of Mes Aynak (a recently discovered Buddhist site in the province of Logar, Afghanistan), where he worked as a field archaeologist for three years. His master’s thesis was also dedicated to this site and was titled “Ritual Practice: Spatial Setting and Architecture of Sacred Spaces of the Mes Aynak Urban Site (Afghanistan, 1st Millennium CE).” He successfully defended his thesis in June 2026 at EPHE-PSL in Paris, France. Currently, he is conducting the research project of A05 “Stairway to Heaven: Liminal Spaces in Early South Asian Buddhist and Hindu Sacred Architecture” at CERES within the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1475 “Metaphors of Religion.”