Jamel A. Akbar received his SMArchS degree in 1980 with his thesis in housing design entitled, "Support for Courtyard Houses: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia." He then stayed on at MIT to complete his PhD, which he did in 1984 with the dissertation, "Responsibility and the Traditional Muslim Built Environment." Dr. Akbar has since returned to Saudi Arabia where he holds a professorship in the College of Architecture and Planning at the King Faisal University. Professor Akbar is a well-known reference in the field of the Muslim built environment. His articles on the Islamic built environment, preservation, planning and design have been published in journals & books such as Architectural Knowledge and Cultural Diversity, Muqarnas, Journal of King Saud University, Building for Tomorrow, and Open House International, and he has published two books, Imarat al-‘ard fi al-islam and Crisis in the Built Environment: The Case of the Muslim City in which he developed a model for measuring the quality of the built environment. Professor Akbar has delivered papers at conferences worldwide in such countries as Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Turkey, Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan, Spain, Kuwait, Switzerland, the U.K., and Syria. Early on in his career he was granted the King Fahd Award for Architectural Research in the Muslim World. He was recently selected for various editions of Who’s Who, most importantly Millennium Who’s Who in the World in 2000. Also he was selected for several editions published by the International Biographical Center such as 1000 Great Asians, One Thousand Great Intellectuals, 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century, and Eminent People of Today. Further, Jamel A. Akbar was a member of the Aga Khan Award Technical Committee, a Guest-Editor of "Open House International, member of SAR International, the Netherlands, a member of the Riyadh Science Complex Committee, as well as Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Umran Association.

Hana S. Alamuddin graduated from the Aga Khan Program's Designing for Islamic Societies in 1987, for which she wrote her thesis on a "Waterfront developments in the Middle East case study: the Golden Horn Project, Istanbul, Turkey." She then moved back to England, where she worked with the John S. Bonnington partnership on projects including the Royal Bank of Scotland Headquarters in Jersey, barracks for the Qatar Police force, as well as several competitions including one for the Dubai Chamber of Commerce's Q-Tel Telecommunications Headquarters on Doha Qatar, and for the Shiakawa-British Cultural Center in Japan. She left John S. Bonnington partners in 1992 and began her two years at Unitex Consulting Engineers in Beirut in 1993 where she was head of the design team for the Saida New Mosque. After then moving in 1996 to Designers where she consulted on residential projects, Ms. Alamuddin joined Mamari Architects. With Mimari, she was the project architect on two restoration projects in Beirut as well as on a residential/commercial development in north Lebanon. In 1997, Ms. Alamuddin consolidated her freelance experience and started her own practice Al-Mimariya s.a.r.l. in 1998, Al-Mimariya projects include residences in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt . As a member of the executive committee of theAssociation Pour la Protection des Sites et Anciennes Demeurs she took part in a study on reconstruction guidelines of Salimah Village in Mount Lebanon to preserve its architectural and historic character. The team worked directly with the villagers and various ministeries and construction material companies to insure financial and technical help for the owners to resort their homes. As well as serving as a technical reviewer for the Aga Khan Award in both 1998 and 2001, she sat on the technical committee for the Preservation of the Architectural Heritage of Beirut Ministry of Culture in 1996. She was also part of a five architect team that worked forthe Director General of Urbanism, setting out a policy and the parameters for conservation areas in Beirut. The plan received approval by the Higher Directorate of Urbanism 1996. . Since 1994, Hana Alamuddin has lectured and co-taught design studios at AUB, and has presented lectures at both MIT and York University in England. She has been published three times, her "Letter from Beirut" in Mimarlik Kulturu Dergisi in August 2000, and her article on the Lebanese House, "The then the mason came forth and said: Speak to us of houses," in the 1996 Beitiddine Festival program. and in the published Colloquim papers ,Architectural Education Today, Cross -Cultural Perspectives , 2002 " I want a Colonial House: The Architect versus the Other " Hana is also a founding member of the Arab International Women's Forum, a non profit organisation started in 2001, The AIWF is a forum for communication and networking between Arab business and professional women and their counterparts in the global economy.

Howayda N. Al-Harithy graduated from the SMArchS program in 1987 with her thesis on "Architectural Form and Meaning of Light of Al-Jurjani’s Literary Theories." From there she went on to pursue a Master of Arts and a PhD at Harvard, analyzing Mamluk architecture through both degrees. While engaged in her academic work at Harvard, Ms. Al-Harithy served as an architectural advisor to the Arriyadh Development Authority in Saudi Arabia. After receiving her doctorate in 1992, she returned to MIT as a visiting assistant professor while also lecturing at Harvard. In 1994, Ms. Al-Harithy moved to Lebanon where she took a teaching position in the Civilization Sequence Program at American University of Beirut. Though she took a hiatus as a visiting associate professor at MIT for the Spring 2000 semester, Howayda N. Al-Harithy continues to teach at AUB, where she is presently an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture and Design. She is very active at AUB, where she has organized design and fine art exhibits, conferences, lectures and panel discussions, coordinated a joint studio with Harvard Graduate School of Design, has lead student travel trips and advised in the development of the campus’ Master Plan Project. She has also served on UNISCO’s Scientific Committee for their 2000 seminar University and Heritage, and as a member of the editorial board for the Electronic International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. As well as attending numerous conferences, Ms. Al-Harithy has presented papers recently at MESA, YPO Cairo, the ACSA International Conference, the National Museum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments Conference, the Sixth International Seminar on Urban Form Meeting, and the Sackler Museum Lecture Series. She has published a monograph in the Bibliotheca Islamica entitled, "The Waqf Document of Sultan Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun." Two of her pieces also appear in The Cairo Heritage (Papers in Honor of Layla Ibrahim and Arabic Calligraphy in Architecture: Islamic Monument Inscriptions in the City of Tripoli during the Mamluk Period. Howayda N. Al-Harithy has furthermore had articles published in Oxford’s Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Muqarnas, Mamluk Studies Review, Middle East Women’s Studies Review, Journal of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments, Bahithat, and the Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review. http://people.aub.edu.lb/~webfea/faculty/hharithy/resume.

Wael Al-Masri graduated from the SMArchS program in 1993 with his thesis entitled, "Architecture and the Question of Identity: Issues of Self Representation in Islamic Community Centers in America." Even before coming to MIT, Mr. Al-Masri was an established designer, having worked as a senior architect in the Kuwaitti Engineer’s Office for six years an then as the Campus Architect of the University of Southern Indiana for one year. After graduating, Mr. Al-Masri moved to Amman, where he lectured and supervised design work at Jordon University for Women. In 1994, he joined Shubeilat Badran Associates (SBA) in Amman as a project manager and senior architect on such projects as the Amman City Hall, Abu ‘Ubayda Project (which included a mosque, mausoleum, school, marketplace, housing and landscaping), and Dar al-Khayr, the late King Hussein’s residence in Hommar. From 1995 to 1996 he administered the Jordan Sustainable Tourism Development Project funded by USAID. Mr. Al-Masri then took the position of Partner and Head of the Architectural Department at the Khayyat Engineering Company in Jordan, undertaking design projects including villas and hotels. While with Khayyat, he was able to also lecture at the University of Applied Sciences as well as win a competition for the design of tourist facilities at Wadi Rum. During this time, Mr. Al-Masri continued to work as a consultant for SBA. In 1998, he returned full-time to SBA, recently renamed Dar al-Omran, where here is a partner today. Wael Al-Masri’s work there includes projects in Jordan and Kuwait as well as the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha Qatar, the World Monuments Fund signage project for Petra as well as numerous international competitions.

Minakshi Amundsen graduated Minakshi S. Mani in 1998 with an SMArchS/ MCP dual degree. Her thesis was on "The future of the past: on conserving the Mellah of Rabat, Morocco." She then joined the MIT Planning Office for six months from October 1998 until March 1999. In April of 1999, Mrs. Amundsen joined Harvard Planning and Real Estate as a Campus Planner. Her urban design and planning work there includes transportation and housing studies, design review and guideline development, streetscape design, real estate negotiation, master planning and community involvement as well as hiring and supervising student interns from the Graduate School of Design. As a private consultant, Mrs. Amundsen has completed a project for UTSB for Parks Canada that proposes adaptive reuse of historic proportions and associated sustainable development alternatives for the town of Banff.

Glaire D. Anderson received her PhD in 2005, with a dissertation on suburban estates (munya) and court culture in 10th century Umayyad Cordoba. She received awards for her research from the College Art Association, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for the Study of the History of Art, the Society of Architectural Historians, the Historians of Islamic Art, and the Barakat Foundation, among others. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she teaches courses on Islamic art, architecture, and urbanism with a focus on the Mediterranean and the Maghrib; Islamic villas, gardens, and court cultures; Orientalism and visual culture, and the Historiography of Islamic Art. Anderson is editor (with Mariam Rosser-Owen) of Revisiting al-Andalus: Perspectives on the Art & Material Culture of Islamic Iberia & Beyond (Brill Academic Publishers, Fall 2007), to which she contributes an article on the architecture of the Cordoban Umayyad villas, and for which she co-authored the introductory essay, on Anglo-American studies of al-Andalus in the context of European contributions to the field. Her work also has been published in the Chicago Art Journal, Thresholds, and Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia (Routledge, 2006). Her current book project, based on her dissertation, focuses on the villas and court culture of Umayyad Cordoba.

Zarminae Ansari graduated from the S.M.Arch.S. program in 1997. Her thesis focused on the phenomenon of regionalism and the search for national identity, concentrating specifically on the work of Pakistani architect Kamil Khan Mumtaz. After graduating, Ms. Ansari remained at MIT as the research and organization coordinator for MIT’s Historic Town Revitalization Workshop in Peshawer, Pakistan. She worked in an architecture and urban design firm in Boston till she returned to Pakistan. In the spring on 2001, Ms. Ansari served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Karachi before getting married and moving to London. She currently resides in Houston with her husband, Najeeb Ali Khan, where she recently organized the Rice University Global Forum on Engineering and Construction Industry, before joining nthTechnology as Director of Design and Development. Ms. Ansari is a freelance writer and foreign correspondent for various English language periodicals in Pakistan. She is currently working on a chapter she is contributing to a book on Pakistani Design.

Shahnaz Arshad received her SMArchS degree in 1988 with a thesis "Reassessing the role of tradition in architecture." She then returned to Pakistan where she took a position as senior architect at National Engineering Services Pakistan Ltd. In Islamabad. After working with them for a year, Ms. Arshad moved to a private architectural consulting firm, Suhail and Pasha, where she worked as a project manager until 1993. Ms. Arshad then became managing partner at Naqshgar, an architecture and design firm in Rawalpindi. In 1996, she left Naqshgar and went to work for the World Bank in Pakistan, where she currently works today for them as a Senior Urban Specialist. Her experience with the Bank includes overseeing lending on such projects as the Punjab Municipal Development Fund and supervision over projects such as the NWFP Community Infrastructure Project and the Karachi Water Supply and Sanitation Project. Ms. Arshad has also coordinated economic and sector work in City Development Strategy and City Assistance Program for Peshawar, created a Preliminary Needs Assessment for Afghanistan, and involved private sector participation in urban-environmental services. Recently, Ms. Arshad supervised a health sector reform project in Jordan. As well as receiving three Spot Awards for professional contributions last year, she was included in the World’s Who’s Who of Women, 14th edition, in 1996.

Imdat As graduated from the SMArchS program in 2002, with his thesis, "Emergent Design: Rethinking Contemporary Mosque Architecture in Light of Digital Technology." Mr. As has directly gone on to pursue his Doctor of Design at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. His interest in computer aided design and digital media has determined his concentration at the GSD on Virtual Space Theories and Digital Media. www.gsd.harvard.edu/~ias, www.mit.edu/~imdatas

Salvatore Autorino graduated with a SMArchS degree in 1994 with the thesis, "Memory of Islam: Culture and Politics in 16th-century Religious Architecture in Mexico and Peru." While at MIT, Mr. Autorino continued to run his one-man firm out of Napoli. After graduating, however, Mr. Autorino moved to Kingston, Jamaica, where he was a design manager with Edward Young and Associates. He remained in Jamaica until 2000, working with Michael Lake and Associates before co-founding aws.architects, a firm which focused on residential and small commercial buildings. Simultaneously, Mr. Autorino worked with the Carribean School of Architecture to help develop the academic aspects of their Bachelor Program as well as teaching both there and at UNPHU in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Mr. Autorino then returned to Napoli where he founded the architectural firm Spark. For the early part of 2001, he was in Brazil working as a freelance architect with Andre Sa and Francisco Mota Arquitectos in Salvador da Bahia on a master plan for an urban revitalization project in Salvador. In May of 2001, Salvatore moved back to Italy to work with OfCA in Caserta, with whom her participated in a competition on the revitalization of the medieval town of Santa Maria a Monte in Siena and a competition for the new museum of Shi-Ga in Azuma, Japan. Last year Salvatore Autorino returned to Spark and has worked in such projects as the master plan for a tourist resort in Honduras, a design competition for an urban center prototype in Japan and a residential project in Bishkek, Kyrghystan. When he isn’t working, Mr. Autorino enjoys writing, tennis, swimming and running.

Dr. Akhtar A. Badshah completed both a S.M.Arch.S degree, in 1983, and a Ph.D., in 1993, through the AKPIA at MIT. His thesis and dissertation were, respectfully, "Interventions into old residential quarters: the case of Shahjahanabad," and "Sustainable and equitable urban environments in Asia." Dr. Badshah has taught at MIT, Roger William College, and the University of Washington, has authored Our Urban Future: New Paradigms for Equity and Sustainability (London: Zed Books, 1996) as well as several articles addressing urbanism, housing and development, has conducted international conferences and has consulted for many international development organizations. He is the recipient of the New England Chapter of the AIA Award for Low-Income Housing and Mentorship Project in Lowell, Massachusetts. His more recent projects include Global Classmates, the Social Venture Fund and the Social Enterprise Laboratory, which seek out innovative information technology projects with high social benefits. Currently, Dr. Badshah is the co-Founder and Executive Director of the Digital Partners Institutes in Seattle, Washington. www.digitalpartners.org

Arunjot S. Bhalla graduated from the SMArchS program in 1994 with his thesis on "Ordering the land: Urban Metaphors for a Park in Cairo." Thereafter, Arunjot Bhalla joined RSP Singapore where he was involved in projects ranging from highrise office structures to exhibition centers and residential developments, including the International Technology Park at Bangalore. From 1997 onwards he has been at RSP India as head of the professional team with primary responsibility in design. Arunjot’s major focus has been in the design and development of IT Parks and Software Development Facilities. Design projects include Oracle India Development Center, JP Techno Park, The Millenia, SAP Labs Campus, Motorola Campus and the Palm Springs Residential Development in Bangalore, as well as Capital Tower in Singapore and Sentul Raya Exhibition Center in Kuala Lumpur. As well as interior design work in Bangalore and Hyderabad, Mr. Bhalla has done some urban design work such as the Tourism Development Plan in Visag, Andhra Pradesh, Global Village in Bangalore, and ITC Chirala in Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Bhalla has been living in Bangalore since 1997 with his wife, Gurmeet, who has her own pediatric practice in Bangalore, and his children, Angad, who is two, and Mannat, who was born last year.

Can Bilsel is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art at the University of San Diego. Having graduated from the S.March.S. program in 1996, Bilsel completed his doctorate at Princeton University’s School of Architecture. He received a number of awards including the Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities, and was a Getty Fellow in Los Angeles for two consecutive years in 2000-2002. In Summer 2007 he was invited as a visiting scholar to the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Bilsel’s recent scholarship engages the workings of the historiography of art and architecture. He is most interested in key moments when, thanks either to a major archaeological discovery or a rearrangement of an archive, the past becomes intelligible to modern viewers in a new way. His forthcoming book “Antiquity on Display: Techniques of the Authentic in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum” (Oxford University Press, 2010) seeks to contribute to historiography by interrogating the German reconstructions of Middle Eastern antiquities. By organizing his discussion of archaeological reconstructions around the theme of authenticity he intends to contribute to opening a public debate concerning the preservation of historic heritage. Bilsel’s most recent work on archaeology, modernism and nation building includes a long article, “Our Anatolia: Organicism and the Making of the Humanist Culture in Turkey,” published by Harvard University’s journal of Islamic art, Muqarnas (Brill, 2007).

James Carr, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP is an architect with thirteen years of experience dedicated to developing beautiful and effective design solutions for a wide range of project types, including educational facilities and green buildings. A LEED 2.0 Accredited Professional since 2002, Mr. Carr works to design projects that are environmentally responsive in every aspect. Recently completed projects include a 54 kW roof-mounted solar PV array for the Charles River ARC in Needham, and green-building consulting for renovation of a Department of Conservation and Recreation facility on the Cape Cod Canal. Prior to starting his own firm in 2004-- James Carr, architecture & design-- Mr. Carr Co-Chaired the Greening Committee at Flansburgh, Associates in Boston, where he was Project Architect and led the sustainability initiative for the 90,000SF William F. Stanley Elementary School in Waltham--the only LEED Certified public school building in Massachusetts--among other projects. Mr. Carr is a Co-author of the Coalition for High Performance Schools Best Practices Manual and Design Guide , Massachusetts Version. ©2002. This comprehensive guide to designing a green school includes an extensive technical manual and covers every aspect of high performance school construction. In San Francisco in the 1990's Mr. Carr worked on the design of both rural and urban schools, co-founded an organization-- 218Trees-- to preserve urban open space, and served on the Parks and Open Space Circle of Sustainable San Francisco. Mr. Carr has been a Guest speaker at Brandeis University in the Environmental Studies Department, is a Registered Architect in Massachusetts, New York & California, and is a graduate of MIT and Columbia University.

Mohamed El-Husseiny graduated from the Aga Khan Program in 1987 after submitting his thesis, "Genesis and Legacy - a study of traditional, contemporary and proposed systems of control over residential developments in Cairo, Egypt." He has since returned to Cairo, where he now runs his own firm, Mohamed El-Husseiny Architects and Engineers. Over the past few years he has been engaged in the design of private residences, Tourist resorts on the Red Sea coast, and a five-star hospital facility, as well as a K through 12 school in a new development outside of Cairo. In 2001 his Mr. El-Husseiny's team prepared an entry to the Egyptian Ministry of Education's department of academic building competition for the design of multiple public school models to be used contextually throughout Egypt, for which they received second prize on two of their models. Last year, Mr. El-Husseiny teamed up with AKP colleagues Howaida Al-Harithy, Hana Alamuddin, (..* and originally also Khaled Asfour), to produce an entry to the Grand Egyptian Museum architectural competition. On a more personal note, Mohamed lives with his wife, Hedy, who teaches at the Cairo American College, his daughter Kismet, and his son Ahmed, a recent graduate of Cairo University and a budding architect himself.

Markus ElKatsha graduated from MIT in 2000 with a degree in both Architectural Studies and City Planning. His thesis, entitled "The Evolution of Al-Azhar Street, Al-Qahira, Egypt," investigated ongoing changes to the Old City of Cairo as a result of such developments as the new Aga Khan Park adjacent to Al Azhar University and the tunnel which has re-routed traffic from the 1920s surface artery which bisects the Old City's fabric. Since the fall of 2000, Mr. ElKatsha has been working at Machado and Silvetti Associates in Boston. His design projects there have included the Getty Museum in Malibu, California, the Stone Barns project in Westchester, New York and new construction on the campus of American University Beirut. Competitions that he has been involved in include the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, California as well as the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Mohamed graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2005. During his undergraduate years he had diverse work experiences including working for the Jersey City Housing Authority on community housing, for non-profit organizations Concordia in France and Legambiante in Italy working on fort restoration projects, and for artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude on their work The Gates in Central Park, New York City.
Mohamed joined the SMarchS program at MIT immediately following graduating from NJIT. At MIT, he developed his interests in the role of nostalgia and historicism in contemporary Egyptian culture and architecture. This thesis project is the culmination of his work at MIT which he will further develop as a doctoral student at the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Department at New York University beginning Fall 2007.

Murat Germen h as a BS degree in city planning from Technical University of Istanbul and an MArch degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he went as a Fulbright scholar and received AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal for academic excellence. Works as a professor of photography and multimedia design at Sabanci University in Istanbul. Previously worked for various state and private universities such as Bilkent, Yeditepe, Istanbul Technical, Yildiz and Bilgi University; teaching various topics. Has submitted work for distinguished publishers / organizations such as; Istanbul Modern Museum of Art, Young&Rubicam / Reklamevi, Link McCann Erickson, The Designory, Norman Foster&Partners, Medina&Turgul DDB Advertising Agency, Aga Khan Architectural Awards in Geneva, Siemens, Koc Holding, Yapi Kredi Culture and Art Publishers, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Economic & Social History Foundation of Turkey, etc. Having many articles / photo series published on architecture / photography / art / digital design at various magazines and books; he has been invited to several seminars, symposia and conferences like SIGGRAPH, Mutamorphosis, CAe 2008, CAC2, EVA-London’08, eCAADe, ASCAAD to lecture on pertinent topics. Has opened over thirty national / international (Turkey, USA, Italy, UK, Mexico, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Greece, Japan) exhibitions. Has received national / international awards (like second place award in 2007 and honorable mentions in IPA years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, Px3 2007 and IVRPA 2007) for work on photography, design and architecture. Has been invited as jury member for eminent national photography competitions.

Talinn Grigor (Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005) is an Assistant Professor of modern and contemporary architecture in the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University. Her interests are in the relationships between architecture and (post)colonial politics, focused on West Asia and North Africa. Her forthcoming book, /The Civil(ized) Nation: Cultural Heritage and Modernity in 20^th -century Iran/ (Art and Architecture in the 21^st Century series, Periscope Publishing, 2009) traces the history of national patrimony, architectural culture, and notions of good taste under the Pahlavi dynasty (1921-79). She is also preparing a second book, entitled /Of Censorship, Kitsch and Exile: Contemporary Iranian Art and Visual Culture /(London: Reaktion Books, 2011). She is the author of numerous articles that have appeared in the /Art Bulletin/, /Third Text/, /Future Anterior/, /Journal of Iranian Studies/,/ Thresholds/, /ARRIS/, and /DOCOMOMO/. She has received a postdoctoral fellowship at the Getty Research Institute; the Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship from Cornell University; the Ittleson Predoctoral Fellowship from CASVA in the National Gallery of Art; fellowships at the Open Society and Roshan Cultural Heritage institutes, as well as Aga Khan Award at MIT. Her teaching interests are in the areas of modern architectural theory and history; critical theory; Islamic architecture; revolutions, (post)colonialism, and Orientalism. Her present project deals with the turn-of-the-century European art-historiography and its connections to the late 19^th - and early 20th-century eclecticism of Qajar and Mughal architecture and identity politics.

Deeba Haider graduated from the SMArchS program in 1999. Her graduate research focused on the effects of globalization on urban and cultural environment of global cities. Her thesis, “The Growing Pains of Global Cities: Struggles in the Urban Environment of Dubai and Singapore,” was awarded the MIT Thesis Distinction Award. Ms. Haider currently works at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP in New York City in their “Workplace Transformation Practice” as a workplace, knowledge worker consultant, assisting Fortune 500 companies increase their efficiency, creativity and spread of knowledge within the work environment. Prior to working at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ms. Haider was a program manager at World Congress, LLC where she collaborated with the World Bank and other organizations in the private and public sector to identified key social, cultural, and developmental opportunities to create more competitive and socially equitable global cities. Her previous experience also includes business development and proposal coordination at Skidmore Owings and Merrill.

Saif Haq graduated from the SMArchS program in 1992 with his thesis titled "Meaning in Architecture: An Investigation of the Indigenous Environment in Bangladesh." He then returned home where he taught at the Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology until returning to the US to pursue a PhD at Georgia Tech. He received his doctorate in 2001 with his dissertation on environmental cognition and wayfinding in complex architectural settings. His publications include two book chapters and numerous refereed articles that deal with architecture and identity in Bangladesh and issues of environmental cognition, wayfinding and Space Syntax in complex buildings. Saif Haq presently holds an Assistant Professorship at Texas Tech University's College of Architecture, where he also directs the PhD program in Land-Use Planning, Management and Design. He also continues his professional architectural practice as a working partner at the Bangladeshi firm Architekton.

Khadija Jamal graduated from MIT with the SMArchS degree in 1989 with her thesis entitled, "The ‘Present’ of the Past: Persistence of Ethnicity in Built Form." She then returned to Pakistan where she worked with Arif Hassan Associates on an environmental profile for Karachi for UNESCAP as well as on a regional environmental study for Social Action Program. Ms. Jamal then went on to consult on settlement projects for the SDC, the World Bank, and USAID, and on an expressway feasibility study for DELCAN/CIDA, as well as undertake some freelance and cooperative design work including the Federal Government employees Housing Scheme in Islamabad with Rizki and Company. Since 1993, she has been pursuing a similar combination of design and development and planning projects as an Associate at the Consultants Group, Karachi. Ms. Jamal has worked with them on design projects for housing, schools, medical centers, commercial complexes, and tourist facilities. She has also reviewed NGOs for Homeless International, establishing a database of housing for the Aga Khan Housing Board of Pakistan and consulting on projects funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank particularly on water and sanitation and community infrastructure. Khadija Jamal has organized workshops on water, sanitation and environmental sustainability for groups ranging from the World Bank to the grassroots level. She is furthermore a trustee of the Baltit Heritage Trust, served as a technical reviewer for the 2001 AKAA, and continues to serve as the Director of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program.

Sabri Jarrar graduated from the SMArchS program in 1990 . His masters thesis was submitted to the Department of History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of Planning and Architecture. He then went on to receive a second masters degree in the studies of Islamic Art and Archaeology from the University of Oxford in 1997. Mr. Jarrar is currently working on his doctorate through Oxford and expects to receive his PhD in 2003-04. His dissertation is on the architecture of the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem under the Ayyubids and Mamluks. A number of his articles on Islamic architecture have been published and he is currently contributing to a major publication on Ayyubid Jerusalem as well as one on the earliest photographic panoramas of the Near East. Mr. Jarrar was also one of the authors of ArchNetâs Resources for the Study of Islamic Architecture. Inaddition to his academic pursuit, he has also continued to practicearchitecture and has been managing health care design projects at Steffian Bradley Architects in Boston since 1998.

Akel Ismail Kahera received his SMArch degree in 1987 with his thesis, "Art and Architecture of the West African Mosque: An Exegesis of the Hausa and Fulani Models." Dr. Kahera has since gone on to receive his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University and presently teaches in the Department of Middle East Studies; the School of Architeture and Urban Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. From the University of Texas at Austin he has recently been awarded both the Faculty Humanities Institute Fellowship and the Dean’s Fellowship, to add to his myriad other awards and research grants. Last year Dr. Kahera published Deconstructing the American Mosque: Space, Gender and Aesthetics (UT Press) and is in the process of working on three more books. Akel Ismail Kahera’s articles have been published in such journals as Studies in Contemporary Islam, Al-Shajarah: Journal of International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Journal of Islamic Law and Society, Journal of Islamic Law and Culture, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, MIMAR, International Journal of the Study of Traditional Environments and Cross Currents. He has written chapters in Mouvements Feministes: Origines et Orientations, Encyclopaedia of American Immigration and has made more contributions to forthcoming titles. Dr. Kahera has presented at conferences worldwide, served as convenor for the 1998 Symposium "The Life and Legacy of Hassan Fathy"and has organized a number of symposia for the Texas Association of Middle East Scholars (TAMES), and severed as the President of TAMES from 1999-2001. Also notably, Dr. Kahera served as an advisor to the Newark Museum’s exhibit on the Garden of Remembrance: A Memorial to September 11th 2001, is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Islamic Law and Culture and has given frequent news interviews.

Yonca Kosebay graduated from MIT with a SMArchS degree in 1998. Her thesis entitled, "An Interpretive Analysis of Matrankçi Nasuh’s Beyan-I Menazil: translating text into image" worked on one of the most distinguished illustrated manuscripts of Ottoman Art. Since 1999, she has been doing work towards her PhD through Istanbul Technical University, while also participating in projects which engage her architecture and preservation background. In 1998, Ms. Kosebay worked with Dr. Reha Gunay on the excavations of Side Theater. The following year she worked as an architect at the technical support office of the Aga Khan Trust’s Historic Cities Program in Istanbul and Mostar. In 2001, Ms. Kosebay worked at the TAC Foundation as their project coordinator. Her articles on preservation, building typology, urban configuration and architecture’s dialogue with communication technology have appeared in such journals as Mimarist, Istanbul, Art Décor, and Tasarim, as well as in the book Gokcuoglu Evi: Anatomy of a Building and in the papers from the "6th International Seminar on Urban Form" and the "8th International Building and Life Fair and Congress." She received her PhD in 2007 from Istanbul Technical University. Thesis title was "The architecture developed around the Anatolian Railway and Its Preservation". Since June 2008 she is an Assistant Professor at the Kadir Has University.

Basel Kotob received his SMArchS degree in 1991 with his thesis ÒSpatial Layering: An Effect of Cubist Concepts on 20th Century Architecture.Ó He then moved to the United Arab Emirates where he worked as an architect and planner the Town Planning Department in Al Ain for three years. In 1994, Mr. Kotob moved to neighboring Dubai where he worked with ARENCO, an architectural and engineering firm. There he orchestrated many competition entries and worked on several large-scale residential and commercial projects. In 1998 Mr. Kotob joined the international architectural firm NORR Group Consultants International. Based in Toronto, Canada and with offices in the Middle East, NORR was a well-established architectural practice with a reputation of excellence. For the next three years Mr. Kotob was a key contributor on many distinctive projects that now highlight the Dubai skyline. During his tenure at NORR, Dubai, Mr. Kotob was an adjunct faculty member in the Interior Design Department at the American University in Dubai where he taught courses on design, perspective drawing and computer aided design. In June of 2001, Basel Kotob moved to Toronto with his wife, Khuloud Jajeh and daughter Maria. He currently works at NORRÕs head office in Toronto as an architectural designer. http://www.geocities.com/ bkotob02/

On graduating from MIT with an SMArchS in 1990, Kayed Lakhia was recruited, and moved to Northeast Pennsylvania toÊdesign theÊNationalÊPark Service Historical Site: Steamtown - the Nation's onlyÊfully operational rail-yard. The project involvedÊrestoration of existing railyards and a roundhouse as well as additions of exhibition buildings, a theater complex and a visitors' center. Steamtown involved elements of additions, restoration, interpretation, and narrative, all items central to Kayed's MIT thesis: "Interpreting our Urban Past." The Steamtown National Historic Site is a key component in the Plan for the Lackawanna Valley Heritage Corridor, to which Kayed contributed. Kayed is currently a Senior Associate with Highland Associates a largeÊA&E firm with offices in New York, NY; Basking Ridge, NJ; and, Clarks Summit, PA. His most recent project won in a competition by invitation, is the Yonkers Public Library & Board of Education Offices located in Yonkers, NY which opened in Fall '03. (Pictures enclosed). He is currently managing the design of a $44.9 mil K-8 school in upstate-NY; a HospitalÊexpansion in PA; and a Campus Master Plan for a Liberal Arts College, also in upstate-NY.ÊHis work has been published in HealthCare Design Magazine and American School and University Magazine. Kayed resides in picturesque Mountaintop, PA with his wife Patricia who is a lawyer, a 11-year old daughter, Samantha;Êand aÊ8-year old son, Izaak. He occasionally teaches an Introduction to Design Course at the local University. Kayed collects (and when time permits, reads!) antiquarian books; and is an avid blues fan and concert-goer. He is also actively involved in Cub Scouts where he is a den leader

Saman Mahmood graduated from the SMArchS program in 1999 with his thesis, "Shelter Within My Reach: Medium-Rise Apartment Housing for the Middle Income in Karachi, Pakistan." After graduating, Mr. Mahmood worked at the Aga Khan Housing Board in Pakistan for four months before joining the design firm ICON in February 2000. In addition to residential projects, Mr. Mahmood particularly enjoyed working on the Karachi Playhouse, a multi-function theater in the heart of Karachi. Mr. Mahmood serves as an external examinor and jurist for functions at NED University of Engineering and Technology and Dagwood College. He continues to work closely with the Aga Khan Development Network, and in 2001 served as one of the nominators for the Aga Khan awards, nominating two residential projects.

Adnan Morshed received his PhD in 2002 with his dissertation "The Aviator’s (Re)Vision of the World: An Aesthetics of Ascension in Normal Bel Geddes’s Futurama." He is currently in Washington, DC working to transform his dissertation into a book manuscript through his Wyeth Fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Last Spring, Mr. Morshed was in Miami to conduct research on the visual culture of interwar America with the Wolfsonian Fellowship. While in Miami, he presented "The Aesthetics of Ascension in the Avant-Garde Imagination," and had his article, "The Cultural Politics of Aerial Vision: Le Corbusier in Brazil" published in the May 2002 Journal of Architectural Education. Alongside research, Mr. Morshed continues to practice design as a freelance architect and is currently designing a single-family house in Toronto, Canada.

Amer A. Moustafa currently holds an Associate Professor position at the School of Architecture and Design at the American University of Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates. He also directs the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning and Design, an interdisciplinary research and advocacy unit at AUS. He recently led efforts to develop a Master of Urban Planning program at AUS, the first of its kind in the UAE. Dr. MoustafaÕs most recent research interests are in the areas of city design, urban culture and identity, globalization, and the democratic city. Before relocating to the UAE, he had spent over ten years in California in consulting, research, and teaching. ÊHe currently lives in Sharjah with his wife Randa, daughter Noor, and son Adham-Jamal.

Yasser M. Nabil wrote his SMArchS thesis on the relationship between inherited and imported style in "Reconciliations and Continuted Polarities in the Works and Theories of Halim and Bakri" to receive his degree in 1994. While at MIT, his article "Hasan Fathy: A Critical Review" was published in MIT and the AKP’s Works in Progress: The Papers 1993-1994. After returning to Egypt, Mr. Nabil worked for a year with Caravan Community Design, where he participated in the Amphoras Resort, Sanai project. In 1995, together with a life-long friend, Mr. Nabil co-founded Design and Development Studio. Providing consultancy services for urban, archtiectural and interior design projects, D&D Studio has consulted on projects ranging from the Sika Factory for construction chemicals, to the Hurghada International Hospital, and the Sadana Resort in Ras Sedr, as well as countless commercial, office and residential projects. Design and Development was also awarded the top prize in a competition held by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and the Egyptian Opera House for their design of an Open Air Theater and Museum/ Warehouse Building. Mr. Nabil manages to find time to act as a teaching assistant at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Studies. He currently resides in Giza with his two children, Zayad (10), and Laila (8 _), and his wife, who has recently returned to architectural practice. As well as being a member of both the Union of Egyptian Architects and the Egyptian Syndicate of Engineers, Mr. Nabil also serves as treasurer for the MIT Club of Egypt.

Bianca Maria Nardella graduated from the AKPIA SMArchS program in 2001, her thesis was titled "Cultural Interfaces: (In)visible Spaces in the Old City of Jerusalem". Her ongoing research is focused on cultural heritage conservation as a tool to achieve sustainable development for local communities. Ms. Nardella's international activities include workshops and field research on the impact of tourism development in Petra, Jordan; urban conservation in ethnic conflict areas such as Jerusalem and Mostar; participatory planning with low-income communities in Cambodia and Vietnam; post-disaster reconstruction in Turkey. In 2001 Ms. Nardella co-founded URBE Workshop, which designs programs for cultural heritage rehabilitation and she is currently working on professional capacity-building in Mostar for the Stari Grad Foundation, a local ngo to be vested with responsibility for economic and physical development in the historic core. Since 2002 she holds the position of Architecture Program Coordinator for Roger Williams University Study Abroad in Florence, Italy, where she enjoys teaching Advanced Architecture Design Studio on issues of contextualism.

Anoma Pieris received her SMArchS degree in 1994 with her thesis "The trouser under the cloth--Ceylon/Sri Lanka, personal space in the decolonization." After graduating from MIT she returned to Sri Lanka where she practiced architecture for two years before moving to Singapore where she practiced for two and a half years. In 1999 she returned to the US to pursue her PhD in Architectural History at UC Berkeley where she is currently completing her final year with a dissertation on convict labor in the construction industry in the Nineteenth Century Straits Settlements. After completing her PhD in May, she will commence teaching at the University of Melbourne in July. She also intends to practice in Australia with her partner.

Panayiota I. Pyla is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Cyprus. Before assuming her current position, she was Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she taught courses in the history-theory of modern architecture-urbanism and in architectural design. Pyla´s research has an interdisciplinary scope focusing on the intertwined discourses of modern architecture, development, and environmentalism, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean. Her research has been presented in international conferences, chapters in edited volumes, and journals including the Journal of Architectural Education, (where her article “Hassan Fathy Revisited” received the best article award in 2008) and the Journal of Planning History (where her 2008 article “Back to the Future” analyzed Doxiadis’s plans for Baghdad). Pyla received a Professional Degree in Architecture from Rensselaer (1991) and a Masters of Science in Architectural Studies from MIT (1994), where she was awarded the Outstanding Graduating Student Award. She received her PhD from MIT in 2002. (last updated, Sept. 2008)

Samia Rab is originally from Pakistan and is currently residing in the United Arab Emirates with her husband, architect Mark A.M.W Kirchner. She was born in Quetta, Pakistan on August 26, 1963, and has lived in Karachi, Lahore, Rome, Boston, Atlanta, Honolulu and Sharjah. Prior to her time at MIT, she received a B.Arch. from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, (1986), and a Diploma from the International Center for Conservation (ICCROM), Rome, Italy (1993). She graduated from the SMArchS program in 1990, with her thesis "Ethnicity and Habitat: a Comparison of Indigenous and Afghan Migrant Settlements in Quetta, Pakistan," and has since gone on to complete her Ph.D. in architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1997). Her teaching area includes lecture courses on history of world art, design & architecture, seminar courses on contemporary regionalist architecture of Asia and the Pacific region, and studio/workshops on Heritage Management in the U.A.E. Her research focuses on documenting and analyzing examples of contemporary architecture and urban design in Pakistan, Italy, Australia and the United Arab Emirates that seek to establish or retain indigenous and regional identity. She is a registered architect in Pakistan and her professional practice has focused on architectural and urban conservation of historic districts in Cairo, Lahore and Sana’a. At present, she is developing the region’s first post-graduate program in Heritage Management.

See AKPIA@MIT Current Faculty

Joe Raia received his SMArchS degree in 1996 while working throughout his studies at Leers Weinzapfel Associates Architects, Inc. in Boston where he is an Associate today. His thesis at MIT was entitled "Essaourira, Morocco--redevelopment through the introduction of a university." Since graduating, Mr. Raia has remained involved with the academic world, serving as a thesis advisor, critic and design instructor for the Boston Architectural Center and as a juror for the University of Tennessee. Mr. Raia has received numerous awards for some of the design projects he has worked on with LWA. Most recently, the University of Pennsylvania Modular VII Chiller Plan and Athletic Facility has won the Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award, the AIA Honor Award, the American Institute of Steel Construction National Award, the International Institute of Lighting Designers Award, among others. Mr. Raia participated in the design of the Mugar Center for the Performing Arts at the Cambridge School of Weston, in Weston, Massachusetts, that also received the Chicago Athenaeum as well as an AIA New England Honor Award. Also a design by Mr. Raia, in collaboration with Tom Chung, for the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church Design Competition has received recent attention. Articles on his University of Pennsylvania design have been published in Arkitekton, L’architettura, Architectural Record, Business Week, A+U, Modern Steel Construction, Architectural Record, Southeast Asia Building, Competitions, I.D. Magazine, Architecture and Architecture Boston Year in Review. His own independent research on Essaouira, Morocco, has been published in the Arab City Center, Rehabilitation Symposium papers.

Sunitha Raju-Ramachandran graduated from MIT with a SMArchS degree in 2000, with her thesis "Rediscovering Place: Enhancing the Urban Heritage of Singapore." After graduating, she took a position as a Project Manager at The Massachusetts State College Building Authority, where she managed, developed and financed residential facilities for the Massachusetts State Colleges. She was there only briefly before transferring to New York to work with The Brown Companies. With Brown, she was Senior Project Manager in The Houses at Sagaponac, a development project of 35 single family homes each designed by a contemporary distinguished architect. This list of architects, compiled by Richard Meier, includes well known names such as Philip Johnson, Michael Graves, Steven Holl, Harry Cobb, James Ingo Freed, Sir Richard Rogers, Michael Rotondi, Samuel Mockbee, Zaha Hadid, Shigeru Ban as well as promising young architects. At the end of January 2002, Sunitha Raju and her husband Bijoy Ramachandran had their first baby girl, Anjali. Ms. Raju and her husband moved back to India in 2003 and now run a design practise called Hundredhands in BAngalore. They also have a son, Siddharth who is almost two years old.
Hundredhands (hundredhands.com) is an internationally recognized practice and has been featured in Architectural Design (UK) magazine’s survey of contemporary Indian architecture (‘Made in India’, January 2008). Other awards include an official selection for the Project South Exhibition and the Leone di Pietra at the Venice Biennale, 2006, and the Cityscape/Architectural Review Award in 2005.

Kishwar Rizvi received her PhD through the Aga Khan Program with her dissertation on "Transformations in Early Safavid Architecture: The Shrine of Shaykh Safi al-din Ishaq Ardabili in Iran (1501-1629). Since leaving MIT in 2000, a number of her articles have been published. Her "Gendered Patronage: Women and Benevolence in Safavid Architecture" appeared in D.F. Ruggles’s Women, Patronage, and Self-Representation in Islamic Societies, and two of her articles on the shrine of Shaykh Safi have appeared in The Muslim World and Safavid Art and Architecture. Ms. Rizvi also scripted ten entries in the Berkshire Reference Works’ Encyclopedia of Asia ranging from Persian Miniature Painting to Modern Pakistani Architects. For the last two years, Kishwar Rizvi has had a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale’s Center for International and Area Studies and the History of Art Department, where she has been also teaching courses on Islamic architecture. She is also involved with their Middle East Council to organize seminars and conferences.

Lara Tohme is a doctoral candidate completing her dissertation tentatively titled, "Out of Antiquity: A Reconsideration of the Umayyad Qusur," in which she explores how the Umayyads adopted and transformed classical and late antique architectural forms and cultural activities in constructing their own cultural and political persona. She is concurrently teaching courses in both Islamic and Western Art History as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Art History Department at Dartmouth College. Her rich academic background includes visiting scholarships, fellowships, and travel grants from the University of Washington, UCLA, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and MIT’s AKP. She has presented papers at Dartmouth College, MESA, University of Washington, UCLA, the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman and at MIT. Her book review of Flood’s, The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies on the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture, is to be published in Al-Abhath, and her entry on "West Asian Architecture" will be printed in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. She has written encyclopedia entries on "Arabia" in the Encyclopaedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition, as well as entries on "Mario Ciampi" and "Emory Roth" in the Dizionario di Architettura Contemporanea. She is also a co-author of The Umayyads: The Rise of Islamic Art (Beirut, 2000).

T. Luke Young studies urban revitalization and traditional settlements and his thesis was titled "Low-Income Communities in World Heritage Cities: Revitalizing Neighborhoods in Tunis and Quito." Mr. Young graduated from the AKPIA SMArchS program in 2000. Thereafter he worked for the municipality of Washington, DC in the Office of Planning, assisting in the preservation and adaptive-use of structures in historic neighborhoods. Mr. Young recently published a book on the history and development of the city entitled Washington: Then and Now. He is currently assisting the Colombian government with developing a social housing program and micro-credit financing strategies for low-income residents.