[1] Her research takes a multidisciplinary approach and explores topics such as urbanism,[2] empire studies, transcultural visuality[3] and notions of exoticism.

Her dissertation focused on the arts and architecture of Iran, and was titled "Safavid Palaces at Isfahan; Continuity and Change (1590–1666)".

It marked a change in approach for the Courtauld Institute of Art, where since the Second World War the curriculum has focused primarily on the Western tradition.

[9] Sussan Babaie is on the editorial board of the journal Muqarnas and the president of the Historians of Islamic Art Association (2017–19).

[12] Babaie's Isfahan and its Palaces: Statecraft, Shi'ism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran (2008) was the Winner of the Houshang Pourshariati Iranian Studies Book Award in 2009.