Biography

Samia Rab is an architect and professor of urban design. Her research interests include architectural history and theory, urban history and theory, Islamic architecture and urbanism, port city regeneration and incumbent upgrading.

She is currently tenured Associate Professor at the Morgan State University School of Architecture and Planning, Baltimore, and has taught at three other universities, including the American University of Sharjah (2000-2014). As a heritage conservation expert, she has consulted for UNESCO, Paris; International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Rome; Getty Center, Los Angeles; Qatar National Research Fund, Doha and the Government of Sharjah. She is a board member for the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster, USA and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Arabian Studies. Her research on cultural heritage and urban identities has been published internationally, and she is currently working on her book project Conserving Culture in the 21st Century: Lessons from Eastern Arabia. In 2010, she was the recipient of the Science and Technology Grant from the Emirates Foundation of Philanthropy and the Summer Institute Grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities, Washington, DC.

Kirchner received a Master of Science in Architectural Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA and a PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA. She is a Registered Architect with the Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners and an International Affiliate with the American Institute of Architects.


This person was part of SB13 Dakar Off-site project - Vive l’Indépendance de l’Eau