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Centre for Urban Conflicts Research

 

Biography

Dr Anwar Jaber is an Adjunct Professor at Waterloo School of Architecture, University of Waterloo, Canada. As an architect and urban scholar, she is interested in the cultural and socio-political aspects of architecture and urbanism. Her interdisciplinary work explores the meaning and change of the urban environment in cities facing extreme conditions, such as violent conflicts. She completed her MPhil in Architecture and Urban Studies (2014) and PhD in Architecture (2020) at the University of Cambridge in England, where she worked under the supervision of Professor Wendy Pullan at the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research. Her PhD thesis, entitled ‘The Paradox of Ramallah: An Investigation into Palestine’s Political and National Architecture and Urban Topography Since 1995’, spatially investigated the emerging political and national buildings in the city of Ramallah in Palestine, built under the Palestinian state-building project. Her thesis offered a new interpretation of the physical transformation of the city into a Palestinian political centre as it relates to the Palestinian struggle to establish a state within the larger Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Dr Jaber brings an international academic and professional experience from the Middle East and Europe. Before joining Cambridge, she obtained her bachelor degree in Architectural Engineering from Birzeit University in Palestine (2013). She also practiced as a licensed architect and urban planner in a Jerusalem-based NGO, where she developed urban plans for marginalized Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem in collaboration with the local community. At the University of Cambridge, Anwar taught two RIBA-certified undergraduate courses on Divided cities and Islamic Architecture. She also co-edited Scroope 25 (the Cambridge Architecture Journal) and organized several conferences, including the one entitled ‘, for which she received a full funding award from the Graduate School of Arts and Humanities. In addition, she serves as a reviewer for the Arab Urbanism Magazine and was awarded the two prestigious Cambridge Trust and Said-Churchill Scholarships for her studies.
Anwar is also an active scholar and has presented her work in over ten academic conferences and symposia in the UK and the Middle East. She also has a record of leadership and civic engagement training and professional internships in the US, Germany, Jordan, Turkey, Morocco, France, Palestine and the United Kingdom.
Anwar is currently an Adjunct Professor at Waterloo School of Architecture in Canada teaching a course of Divided Cities.

Research

Power and architecture | Politics and capital cities urbanism | Urban conflicts and nationalism | Memory and cities | Divided cities and borders | Socio-politics of cities | Palestine/Israel and the Middle East | Arab cities and urbanism  |   Islamic Architecture and Urbanism 

Education:

2015 – 2020    PhD in Architecture, University of Cambridge

2014 – 2015    MPhil, Architecture and Urban Studies, University of Cambridge

2008 – 2013    Bachelor of Architectural Engineering, Birzeit University, Palestine

Ph.D. details:

- Ph.D. Dissertation Title:
The Paradox of Ramallah: An Investigation into Palestine’s Political and National Architecture and Urban Topography Since 1995

The thesis spatially investigates the emerging political and national buildings in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, built by the Palestinian government under their state-building project. It offers a new architectural and urban analysis of the physical transformation of the city within the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian struggle to establish a state. 

 

 

Selected academic service:

  • Supervisor for the BA Tripos (ARB/RIBA Part I) courses 'Islamic Architecture' and 'Divided Cities' at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge (2015-2017)
  • Lead-organiser for a conference entitled "Spatial Articulations of Collective Identities in the Context of Middle Eastern Cities",  which was awarded full funding from the School of Arts and Humanities, Department of Architecture and Churchill College at the University of Cambridge. My role included included leading a team of two other researchers to formulate the idea, apply for various funding bodies, prepare a call for abstracts, select speakers and prepare all conference logistics. (September 2016)
  • Jury member for the final examination of the course 'Field Research in Local Palestinian Architecture', Department of Architectural Engineering, Birzeit University (August 2016)

Invited Talks:

  • "National Identity Under Conflict: An Insight from Palestine", in INTBAU World Congress, Royal Society of Arts, London (November 2018)
  • "Ramallah the Paradoxical: National Dimensions in Architecture", in PhD Symposium, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge (November 2018)

Conference Papers and Presentations:

  • "Paradoxical Ramallah: Urban and National Dimensions of Ramallah's Official Architecture", in a conference entitled: 'New Approaches to Studying the Middle East', the annual conference of BRISMES- the British Society for Middle Eastern Study, King's College, London (June 2018)
  • 'Locating the Mukata'a: The Role of Government's Architecture in the Development of Ramallah', Places of Amnesia Conference, University of Cambridge (April 2016)
  • 'The Spatial Development of the Palestinian City of Ramallah Under Occupation', Cambridge Graduate-led Urban Research Conference, Cambridge City Seminar, University of Cambridge (June 2015)
  • 'The Religious Transformations of the Western Wall in Jerusalem' The Dynamic of Religious Interaction Conference, University of Cambridge (April 2014)

Awards:

  • (2019) Churchill College Hardship Grant, University of Cambridge, UK
  • (2018) Lundgren Award, University of Cambridge, UK
  • (2016–2018) Faculty Fieldwork Funding, University of Cambridge, UK
  • (2016–2018) Churchill College Travel Grant, University of Cambridge, UK
  • (2015–2019) Cambridge Trust Scholarship for Doctoral Studies, fully funded, University of Cambridge, UK
  • (2013–2014) Said Foundation - Churchill College Palestinian Scholarship, fully funded, University of Cambridge, UK
  • (2012) DAAD- fully funded Summer School, University of Dortmund, Germany
  • (2012) UNESCO Fellowship - Emergency Aid for Palestinian People, Paris, France
  • (2012) Z.A Scholarship for Academic Excellence and Leadership, Birzeit University, Palestine
  • (2009 & 2011) United Palestinian Appeal for Academic Excellence, Birzeit University, Palestine
  • (2009) MEPI Student Leaders, Exchange program funded by the US Department of State, Georgetown University, Washington D.C

Publications

Key publications: 

Jaber, A. (2018). Creating margins at the centre: Israeli bypass roads in the Palestinian Beit Hanina neighbourhood, East Jerusalem. Accord Insight 4: Borderlands and Peace-building A view from the margins. Conciliation Resources. (4), pp (12-13). 

Jaber, A. Butmeh, W & Hamada, M. (2014). Towards a Better Ecotourism The Deir Qidees Ecolodge in Palestine. This Week in Palestine. Issue 192. pp. (45-48)

Dr Anwar Jaber (BEng, MPhil, PhD)
Adjunct Professor, Waterloo School of Architecture, University of Waterloo
Affiliated Researcher, Centre for Urban Conflicts Research, University of Cambridge
- PhD Supervisor: Professor Wendy Pullan
Dr Anwar   Jaber

Affiliations

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