Visiting Professors Offer Multidisciplinary Lectures on Modern Architecture
Architecture Professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium Hildeh Heynen, along with a number of European professors and researchers, recently spoke at Birzeit University in a lecture series by the Department of Architectural Engineering.
Henyan tackled the issues of modernity, modernism and gender in architecture. She gave a lecture with Professor Salim Tamari on Palestine's modernity during the 19th and the 20th century and another one on the relationship of gender and modern architecture.
Birzeit's graduate and the Head for Smart Urban Redesign Research Center in Netherlands, Nurhan AbuJidi, talked about her book "Urbicide in Palestine". She spoke in a lecture about the way urbicide is used to un/re-make the Palestinian territoriality/urbanity as well as a tool of spatial dispossession and control, examining contemporary political violence and destruction in the context of colonial projects in Palestine.
Belgian philosopher and lecturer at the University of Leuven Lieven De Cauter, in addition to the architect and young activist Ismail Cheikh Hasan gave a lecture through Skype. De Cauter spoke about public spaces in a post-civil society, emphasizing on the importance of social movements to develop and improve urban spaces in the cities, while Hasan introduced the students to the reconstruction process of Nahr el-Bared Refugee Camp, and the role architects and planners in policy making of the reconstruction process.
Other professors who are also Birzeit's graduates, were hosted in Birzeit University including Hanya Halabi, a researcher at Balmond Studio in London, and Anwar Jaber, a researcher at the University of Cambridge.
