Birzeit students cooperate with international peers on stimulating sustainable development in Jordan

Five Birzeit University urban planning and landscape architecture students explored ways to bolster sustainable tourism in Kufranja, Ajloun, Jordan, in a workshop funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)’s Middle East Innovation Lab and organized by Nürtingen-Geislingen University. 

Held from June 21 to 29, 2019, the workshop featured 40 architecture and urban planning students from Nürtingen-Geislingen University, the German-Jordanian University, and the American University of Beirut, who discussed the best ways to develop Kufranja and its surrounding areas, which includes linking the city with the Jordan Trail to spur sustainable tourism in the region.  

Overseeing the project were Samar Nazer from Birzeit University; Dirk Funck, Ellen Fetzer, and Simon Leberl from Nürtingen-Geislingen University; Nayla Al Aqel from the American University of Beirut; Omaimah Ali, Tala Awadallah, Kawther Rayyan, and Aziz Madi from the German-Jordanian University; and Osama Hasan from the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, Jordan. 

Before the workshop, 18 Birzeit University architecture and urban planning students took an online course with Nazer on social entrepreneurship and landscape architecture. Five of these students participated in the Kufranja workshop; other students are expected to join a similar online course in the 2019/20 academic year and to take part