About

Deen Sharp, PhD CUNY, is a Visiting LSE Fellow in Human Geography & Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the Geography and Environment Department. He is the co-editor of Beyond the Square: Urbanism and the Arab Uprisings (Urban Research: 2016), Open Gaza: Architecture of Hope (American University in Cairo Press and Terreform: 2022) and Reconstruction as Violence: The Case of Syria (American University in Cairo Press: Forthcoming). He has published in top-ranking journals including, Progress in Human Geography, Urban Studies and the Journal of Architecture.

d.s.sharp@lse.ac.uk

May Farhat, PhD Harvard, is a Visiting Associate Professor in the Faculty of Architecture and Design at the Lebanese American University. Her research interests cover the architectural history of the Middle East, with a focus on Safavid Iran and the late Ottoman visual culture in Bilad al-Sham.

may.farhat@lau.edu.lb

Fadi Shayya is an architect, urbanist, researcher, and educator working across the fields of science and technology studies, design, and the built environment. His interdisciplinary professional and pedagogic practice engages with militarization, urbanism, technology, and post-war spatial cultures. He is assistant professor at the University of Salford, and he previously taught at the Manchester School of Architecture, Parsons School of Design, and the American University of Beirut.

Maria Bassil graduated with a Master’s degree in Architecture from USEK in Lebanon and Post-Masters in Architecture and Contemporary Heritage from ENSAM in France and UPV/EHU in Spain. Maria is currently pursuing a PhD in Architecture and the City at the Paris Nanterre University and ENSAPVS.

Marc El Samrani graduated in 2018 with a Master's degree in architecture from USEK and a DPEA in Scenography from the National School of Architecture in Montpellier, which he obtained in 2020. He is currently preparing a doctoral thesis under the direction of Hassan Ait Haddou and Laurent Viala at the LIFAM Lab in the University Paul Valéry - Montpellier 3.

Diala Makki is a researcher and an urban planner working across the fields of cultural and economic geographies of urban poverty, informal work, and urban and development studies. Her research interest includes refugee studies, marginalised communities, and political ecology. She is a Senior Research Officer at the London Borough of Newham in London, and she previously worked as a researcher with the Institute of Global Prosperity at the University College London and the Beirut Urban Lab at the American University of Beirut.