American University of Beirut

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People

​​​​​​​​​​Full time faculty members in ​MUPP/MUD

Mona Harb (Coordinator) ​is Professor of Urban Studies and Politics at the American University of Beirut. She received her PhD in Political Science in 2005 from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques at Aix-Marseille (France). She is the author of Le Hezbollah à Beyrouth (1985-2005): de la banlieue à la ville (Karthala-IFPO, 2010), co-author of Leisurely Islam: Negotiating Geography and Morality in Shi'ite South Beirut (Princeton University Press, 2013, with Lara ​Deeb,), and co-editor of Local Governments and Public Goods: Assessing Decentralization in the Arab World (Beirut: LCPS, 2015, with Sami Atallah). Her ongoing research investigates local governance and city strategies, as well as youth mobilization and urban social movements. Harb is the recipient of grants from the LSE, EU-FP7, Wenner-Gren, ACLS, and the Middle-East Awards. She serves on the editorial boards of IJURR and CSSAME, and is a trustee of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences. She is the founder and co-editor of the Cities Page on Jadaliyya e-zine. She provides professional advice on urban development issues for several international organizations (ESCWA, WB, EU, UNDP). 

Howayda Al-Harithy is a Professor of Architecture at the American University of Beirut where she has been teaching since 1994. Al-Harithy served as the Chair of the Department of Architecture and Design from 2003 to 2006 and from 2009 to 2012. She was a visiting professor at Harvard University in 1994, at MIT in 1993 and in 2000, and at Georgetown University in 2006. Al-Harithy received her bachelor degree in architecture from Oregon School of Design in 1985, masters in architecture from MIT in 1987, and PhD in art history from Harvard University in 1992. Her research in Islamic art and architecture focuses on the Mamluk period. The research engages theoretical models of interpretation, particularly post-structuralist models, as analytic tools of the production of architectural and urban space. In 2001, she published a monograph in the Bibliotheca Islamica series entitled The Waqf Document of Sultan Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun.

She is also published in international journals such as Oxford's Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Muqarnas, Mamluk Studies Review, and the Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review. Her more recent research focuses on urban heritage with special emphasis on the theoretical debate on heritage construction and consumption related to identity building and post war reconstruction. The research is published in leading journals such as IJMES and TDSR. In 2010, she edited and contributed to the book entitled Lessons in Post-War Reconstruction: Case Studies from Lebanon in the Aftermath of the 2006 War. Al-Harithy lectures in universities and conferences worldwide. She was a key note speaker in the IASTE 2004 conference, the IAPL 2007 conference and the 30th meeting of the Brazilian Committee for the History of Art in 2011.

Al-Harithy serves on numerous boards and scientific committees including the Executive Board of Advisors for IASTE (International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments) at the University of California, Berkeley and the Senior Advisory Board for Lonaard Magazine in London, UK. 
She served as a member of the master jury for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2013 cycle) and is currently chairing the 4th Holcim Awards jury for the region of Africa Middle East. Her professional engagements are currently focused on two projects she is leading: the Urban Sustainable Development Strategy for Saida in Lebanon and the Central Area Plan for al-Madina al-Munawara in Saudi Arabia.

Mona Fawaz is a Professor in Urban Studies and Planning and the Coordinator of the Graduate Programs in Urban Planning and Design at the American University of Beirut. Her scholarly interests stem from the imperative of making cities more inclusive, particularly from the perspective of enabling low-income dwellers to take part in shaping their cities. Her work spans across urban history and historiography, social and spatial justice, informality and the law, pro​perty and space, as well as planning practice, theory, and pedagogy.

​Fawaz has authored over forty scholarly articles, book sections, and reports in Arabic, French, and English. She is currently working on an alternative history of Beirut, a project that aims to critically engage scholarship about the city’s history in its post-independence period and propose an alternative narrative built from the standpoint of urban peripheries. Fawaz is also the founder and coordinator of the Social Justice and the City Program at the Issam Fares Institute, a research-based platform that seeks to influence public policymaking by supporting ongoing advocacy work with research-based evidence to strengthen their role.

Fawaz holds a BArch from the American University of Beirut (1995), a Masters in City and Regional Planning (1998) and a PhD (2004) from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Fawaz was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard University during the 2014/15 academic year.

Paola Pellegrini is an Associate Professor in Urban Design at the American University of Beirut. She was an Associate Professor at Xi'an Jiaotong–Liverpool University in China from 2017 to 2025, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the European Master in Urbanism (a consortium of TU Delft, KU Leuven, UPC Barcelona, and IUAV Venice) as well as at the School of Architecture and Society at Politecnico di Milano from 2008 to 2017.

She was a Visiting Associate in Urban Planning and Design at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2002; a Visiting Professor in Urbanism at Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Faculdade de Arquitetura, Bauru, Brazil, in 2020; and a Guest Professor in Urban Design at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Nanjing University, China, from 2023 to 2024.

Paola received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Architecture from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, where she also completed her PhD in Urbanism. She is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and has held the Italian National Qualification as Associate Professor in Urban Planning and Design since 2014.

Her most recent research focuses on urbanization in China following the 1979 economic reforms, with particular emphasis on densification processes and the regeneration of urban resettlement areas. Paola has authored numerous book chapters and published scholarly articles in leading journals such as Urban Studies, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, and the Journal of Cultural Heritage.

Paola is also a registered architect in Italy and has consistently integrated academic research with professional practice for public authorities.​

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Regular Program Contributors​

Maya Abou-Zeid is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and a research affiliate of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has experience in the areas of travel behavior modeling and forecasting and urban transportation planning. Abou-Zeid holds a bachelor degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from AUB (2001), a master in Transportation from MIT (2003), and her PhD in Transportation from MIT (2009). Her dissertation focused on measuring and modeling activity and travel well-being. She was an Associate of Cambridge Systematics from 2003 to 2005, working in the area of travel demand forecasting and market research.

Her current research projects include studying measures for improved walkability and enhanced public transportation services in Lebanon, including new bus amenities and new taxi-sharing services; modeling aggressive driving behavior using a driving simulator to quantify aggressiveness and improve road safety; modeling mass effects and their influence on car ownership decisions across cultures in order to derive normative policy measures for reducing car ownership rates; developing enhanced activity-based travel demand models; and developing new measures of activity and travel experienced well-being that will be used in conjunction with a Smartphone application that records travel patterns.

Mona Khechen is a senior fellow at The Policy Initiative (TPI), co-director of the Climate, Land, and Rights (CLR) project, and a part-time instructor at the AUB School of Architecture and Design. She is an independent urban and regional development planner whose work focuses on land governance, territorial planning, and climate change. 

Mona has consulted for international organisations in Lebanon and abroad, addressing development challenges in contexts of crisis and rapid urbanisation, and emphasising strategic, sustainable, and participatory responses. She holds a BArch from AUB, an MSc in Development and Planning from UCL, and a Doctor of Design from Harvard University.​

Yaser Abunnasr is an Associate Professor at the Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management at the American University of Beirut. He is trained as an architect and a landscape architect and holds degrees in both fields. He received his PhD in Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Abunnasr adopts a landscape and environmental approach to urban and regional planning that mediates ecological and ecosystem concerns with community wellbeing and livelihood. Dr. Abunnasr’s current research is focused on green infrastructure systems as a planning and design tool for climate change adaptation for urban and regional resilience. His work on adaptation planning investigates frameworks and procedures that account for impacts on natural and manmade systems, incorporate uncertainty in current and future conditions in the planning process and addresses vulnerability and exposure of communities to these impacts.

​Work on green infrastructure is conceptualized as a landscape system that operates at multi-scales, provides multiple benefits, and enhances places of living. Dr. Abunnasr is currently researching the impact of different land-uses on the availability and morphology of physical space, including hybrid systems (natural engineered systems) that provide opportunities to retrofit urban regions with green infrastructure systems. Dr. Abunnasr is in the process of applying research on adaptation and green infrastructure planning to the MENA region. 

Dr. Abunnasr is also trained as an archeologist. He extends this interest into applying community based landscape approaches to conservation of cultural and archeological heritage sites to extend their role as open spaces that contribute to everyday living. In his spare time, Dr. Abunnasr enjoys photography, travel and reading a good book.

Hana Alamuddine is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a LEED Green Associate. Alamuddine holds a master degree in Architecture from MIT. She started her practice in Lebanon, Almimariya, Architects and Designers, in 1999. The practice works on architectural, urban design and landscape projects within the perimeters of sustainable development and construction. Alamuddin served as a technical reviewer for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for three cycles. She is also a senior lecturer at the American University of Beirut. 

As a member of the executive committee of the Association Pour la Protection des Sites et Anciennes Demeures du Liban from 1999 to 2008, she worked on several heritage preservation projects in Lebanon. She is also an active member of the Lebanese Green Building Council. For more information, please check www.almimariya.com​​

​Serge Yazigi is an architect and urban planner. He practices as an architect, a consultant in sustainable development, urban renewal, land-use planning, and strategic planning and has developed an extensive experience working in these fields in Lebanon as well as Tunis, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt...etc. In 2005, Yazigi founded Yazigi Atelier, a planning, architecture and design consultancy firm from which he conducts most of his work. In addition, between 1999-2009, Yazigi has acted as a senior external consultant for Dar Al Hadassah Taleb & partners on all their architectural and planning projects in Lebanon and the region.

Yazigi’s research interests led him to found in 2007 Majal, an Academic Urban Observatory at ALBA based at the University of Balamand, which aims to facilitate research and assist localities in the formulation of adapted development strategies. Through Majal, Yazigi has directed numerous publication addressing particularly planning law and regulations.

Yazigi has taught courses in architecture and planning at ALBA (University of Balamand), the Lebanese University, the Université Saint Joseph and the American University of Beirut. Yazigi holds a PhD in Contemporary History in the field of urban renewal, from the University of Bordeaux 3, France; and a DESS degree in Urban Planning and a Master’s degree in Architecture, both from Balamand University.​​​

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