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Robert Saliba’s Mental Imaging of Downtown Beirut
04.04.2023
Article

Robert Saliba’s Mental Imaging of Downtown Beirut

We are honouring the memory of our colleague, friend, and teacher, Professor Robert Saliba, by publishing one of the early and ground-breaking works which he conceived and coordinated, and which remains a hard-to-find yet incredibly insightful text. At a time when Beirut’s memory continues to be erased, the relevance of his work stands out.
In Memory, Habib Debs
17.02.2023
Our Reflections

In Memory, Habib Debs

Habib Debs left us too soon, on February 10th, 2023. Since the early 1990s, Habib Debs has been involved in nearly every battle to improve urban planning and design in Lebanon (and beyond), its standards, methods, and practices. A champion of cultural heritage protection, a gifted public space designer, and a leading figure in city planning, he will be remembered for his incredible talent, innumerable contributions, deep humanism, and his role as an engaged citizen fighting for a more just and secular country.
Disaster Governance and Aid Effectiveness: the Case of Lebanon’s 3RF
09.11.2022
Our Reflections

Disaster Governance and Aid Effectiveness: the Case of Lebanon’s 3RF

Following the Beirut Port Blast, the Reform, Recovery, and Reconstruction Framework "3RF" came to life. Sophie Bloemeke and Mona Harb examine three interconnected sets of structural constraints that limit the platform's performance.
Launching an Urban Observatory Amidst a Painful and Slow Recovery
10.08.2021
Our Reflections

Launching an Urban Observatory Amidst a Painful and Slow Recovery

One year after the Beirut port blast, we remain in awe at the social mobilization that continues to surround the people in the neighborhoods affected by the explosion. Over 12 months, and amidst devastating, economic, political, and health crises, city-dwellers—organized or not, working side by side with a large array of local and international organizations, are still struggling to repair homes, businesses, schools and hospitals and restore the viability of their city.
On Apartheid Planning
27.05.2021
Our Reflections

On Apartheid Planning

In line with our commitment to produce informed scholarship on urbanization and advocate socially-just and viable urban policies, we launch the Beirut Urban Lab’s Arabic website on the heels of the anniversary of the Nakba, the 73rd commemoration of the massacres that marked the establishment of the State of Israel, while Palestinians continue to count their dead and while the residents of Gaza, sieged for the past 13 years, discover the daunting destruction after 11 days of relentless military aggression.
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City Debates 2023 - Recap Video
13.09.2023
Conference

City Debates 2023 - Recap Video

How can we make our cities more livable when their most essential component, land, has become a global financial asset? To think through this challenge, the Beirut Urban Lab and the Graduate Programs in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design collaborated with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to hold the 19th edition of City Debates 2023. Titled “Taming the Growth Machine: The Promises and Pitfalls of Land Value Capture,” the conference brought 20 scholars to Beirut in Spring 2023.
Book Talk: The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion
25.07.2023
Book Talk

Book Talk: The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion

On Monday June 5, 2023 the Beirut Urban Lab, in collaboration with the Bobst-AUB Collaborative Initiative at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, held a book discussion of The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion by Mark Beissinger, a Henry W. Putnam Professor in the Department of Politics at Princeton University.
Book Talk: Islamophobia and Lebanon: Visibly Muslim Women and Global Coloniality
12.07.2023
Book Talk

Book Talk: Islamophobia and Lebanon: Visibly Muslim Women and Global Coloniality

On Monday May 29, 2023 the Beirut Urban Lab (BUL) held a book discussion of Islamophobia and Lebanon: Visibly Muslim Women and Global Coloniality (I.B. Tauris, 2023) by Ali Kassem, a Lecturer in Sociology at the National University of Singapore. The book talk was introduced and moderated by Mona Harb, Professor of Urban Studies and Politics at the AUB and Research Lead at BUL. Kassem presented his book’s structure and chapters. He was joined by discussants Ghina Abi-Ghannam, a PhD candidate in Critical Social Psychology at City University of New York, Zina Sawaf, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies at the Lebanese American University, and Nada Moumtaz, Associate Professor in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto.
Talk: Twilights and the Weathering of State Dreams: A Social History of the ‘Director General’ in Lebanon (1960-2020)
06.07.2023
Talk

Talk: Twilights and the Weathering of State Dreams: A Social History of the ‘Director General’ in Lebanon (1960-2020)

On Monday May 22, 2023, the Beirut Urban Lab (BUL) held a talk titled “Twilights and the Weathering of State Dreams: A Social History of the ‘Director General’ in Lebanon (1960-2020)” with Pierre France, Senior Researcher at the Orient-Institut Beirut. This discussion was moderated by Mona Fawaz, Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the American University of Beirut and Research Lead at BUL, and featured commentaries by Myriam Catusse, Regional Director of the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO) and Wissam El-Lahham, Political Scientist and Lecturer at Saint Joseph University of Beirut.
Book Talk: God’s Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State
03.07.2023
Book Talk

Book Talk: God’s Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State

On May 4, 2023 the Beirut Urban Lab (BUL), in collaboration with the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Media Studies (SOAM) and the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan Chair for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut, and the Orient-Institut Beirut held a discussion of Nada Moumtaz’s first book titled: God’s Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State (University of California Press, 2021).
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The Urban and Local Dimensions of Political Violence in Syria and the Middle East
08.06.2023
Call for Papers

The Urban and Local Dimensions of Political Violence in Syria and the Middle East

The Syria Urban Research Project (SUR Project), a group of Arab researchers working on related questions in Syria and the Middle East, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the American Political Science Association (APSA), and in collaboration with the Civilization Forum 2023 of The Alliance of Civilizations Institute (MEDIT) at Ibn Haldun University (Istanbul) and the Beirut Urban Lab (BUL) at the American University of Beirut is organizing a three-day interdisciplinary—and dataset-focused—workshop on October 27 – 29, 2023 titled: The Urban and Local Dimensions of Political Violence in Syria and the Middle East at MEDIT’s historical campus in Süleymaniye, Istanbul
The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion
29.05.2023
Book Talk

The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion

The Beirut Urban Lab, in collaboration with the Bobst-AUB Collaborative Initiative at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut, invite you to a discussion of Mark Beissinger's book: The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion on Monday, June 5, 2023 at 5:30 pm, at West Hall Auditorium A, American University of Beirut. All are welcome!
Housing Uncertainties, Financial Crisis, and Social Protections
25.05.2023
Virtual Discussion Series

Housing Uncertainties, Financial Crisis, and Social Protections

Join us throughout June 2023 for a series of online presentations and discussions on Housing Uncertainties, Financial Crisis, and Social Protections with leading scholars and practitioners working towards the right to housing, who will explore comparatively questions at the intersection of housing inequalities, forced displacement, and financialization. The online series concludes with two roundtables probing the possibilities afforded by social protection schemes to respond to the increasingly dire living conditions of today’s urban majorities. Tuesdays 6, 13, 20 & 27 June 2023, at 5:00 pm Beirut Time (GMT +3)
Islamophobia and Lebanon: Visibly Muslim Women and Global Coloniality
18.05.2023
Book Talk

Islamophobia and Lebanon: Visibly Muslim Women and Global Coloniality

The Beirut Urban Lab cordially invites you to a discussion of Ali Kassem’s book Islamophobia and Lebanon: Visibly Muslim Women and Global Coloniality on Monday, May 29, 2023 at 5:00PM at the Architecture Lecture Hall, Dar Al Handasah Design and Architecture Bldg., American University of Beirut
Twilights and the Weathering of State Dreams: A Social History of the ‘Director General’ in Lebanon (1960-2020)
11.05.2023
Talk

Twilights and the Weathering of State Dreams: A Social History of the ‘Director General’ in Lebanon (1960-2020)

The Beirut Urban Lab cordially invites you to a talk with Pierre France, a Senior Researcher at the Orient-Institut Beirut, titled: “Twilights and the Weathering of State Dreams: A Social History of the ‘Director General’ in Lebanon (1960-2020)” on Monday May 22, 2023 at 5:00pm at the ALH, AUB
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