Wayne J.R Osborn defended his Dissertation titled:
"The Type of Calligraphy: Writing, Print, and Technologies of the Arabic Alphabet" on May 5, 2008.

J.R. explains; my research pursued the story of Arabic script, as it moves across communication media and languages. It examines multiple applications of Arabic script and explores the importance of print culture and printed material in relation to the rise of the modern bureaucratic state. Arabic typography, calligraphy, and recent artistic experiments all reveal meaning through a shared collection of symbols: the letters and glyphs of the Arabic alphabet. The communicative question asks how distinct practices employ this common set of visual tools. Handwritten, printed, digitally designed, and artistic Arabic letters inscribe different types of texts, and relationships across these diverse texts influence the meaning, understanding, and appreciation of the letter as a visual symbol.Via a historical study of Arabic script, this dissertation outlines a series of communicative strategies that might usefully inform current practices of textual design. Aesthetic differences modify the communication of written Arabic messages, and awareness of this visual variation invites more engaged readings and more creative modes of writing. As practices of writing continue to shift both in the Middle East and globally, the visual conventions surrounding Arabic script offer an opportunity to reexamine and reimagine contemporary practices. Diverse methods of visual inscription suggest new possibilities of meaning and new avenues of critique.