Staff profile

I am an interdisciplinary scholar in between politics, Urban and Political Geography, and Middle East studies. I write about questions of memory, archiving, (geo)poetics of space, infrastructure and affective and material aspects of cities. My doctoral research included investigating the archives of national Egyptian architects who were designing plans for post-colonial/post-independence Cairo. My post-doctoral research focused on the aesthetics and poetics used to represent and depict Arab cities after 2011, neighbourhood storytelling and memory in Coventry, and Space and Memory work in Egypt. I am firmly guided by a postcolonial framework in my research and political commitments, and I am inspired by decolonial and feminist approaches in teaching and research.

 

I am currently a British Academy fellow, conducting the research project "When the city stands still" (2023-2025). Prior to the fellowship, I worked as a Lecturer in the Geohumanities in RHUL, a Lecturer of Human Geography in Durham University, and a Teaching Fellow in the School of Global Studies, Sussex University. I have a broad teaching experience in Social, Cultural, Urban and Political Geography as well as research-led teaching in Geographies of Development and Critical Geographies of the Middle East.

 

In the past, I have co-convened the Warwick Political Geography group (Warwick, 2015-2018). I co-initiated the Geography and Middle East North East network (2020-2021) with Dr Olivia Mason in Durham and Newcastle Universities. We currently convene this network alongside Dr Joanna Allan (Northumbria) and Dr Mark Griffith (Newcastle). I am also one of the editorial team of Arab Urbanism, a bi-lingual open access platform that publishes on urban questions in the Arab World.

• Cities
• Middle East
• Postcolonial geographies
• Affect
• Poetics
• Built environment and infrastructure
• Geohumanities

Authored book

• Spon End: A Local Guide
  
  Nieuwenhuis, M., Nassar, A., & Leach, C. (2019). Spon End: A Local Guide. Independent Publishing Network.

Book review

• Yahia Shawkat 2020: Egypt's Housing Crisis: The Shaping of Urban Space. Cairo/New York: The American University in Cairo Press
  
  Nassar, A. (2021). Yahia Shawkat 2020: Egypt’s Housing Crisis: The Shaping of Urban Space. Cairo/New York: The American University in Cairo Press. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 45(3), 579-580. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13022
• Social Housing in the Middle East: Architecture, Urban Development, and Transnational Modernity. Kivanc Kilinç and Mohammad Gharipour, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2019). Pp. 330. $85.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780253039842
  
  Nassar, A. (2020). Social Housing in the Middle East: Architecture, Urban Development, and Transnational Modernity. Kivanc Kilinç and Mohammad Gharipour, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2019). Pp. 330. $85.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780253039842. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 52(3), 603-604. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020743820000537
• Endurance in the city victorious (Book review forum: Improvised Lives: Rhythms of Endurance in an Urban South)
  
  Nassar, A. (2020). Endurance in the city victorious (Book review forum: Improvised Lives: Rhythms of Endurance in an Urban South). Dialogues in Human Geography, 10(1), 78-80. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820619895888
• Egyptian Revolutions : Conflict, Repetition and Identification by Amal Treacher Kabesh
  
  Nassar, A. (2018). Egyptian Revolutions : Conflict, Repetition and Identification by Amal Treacher Kabesh. Emotion, Space and Society, 29, 71-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2018.07.007
• Amale Andraos, Nora Akawi and Caitlin Blanchfield (eds.) 2016: The Arab City: Architecture and Representation. New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, Columbia University Press
  
  Nassar, A. (2017). Amale Andraos, Nora Akawi and Caitlin Blanchfield (eds.) 2016: The Arab City: Architecture and Representation. New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, Columbia University Press. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 41(2), 376-378. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12478

Chapter in book

• Cairo Up! Infrastructures of Security and Desire
  
  Nassar, A. (2024). Cairo Up! Infrastructures of Security and Desire. In Cairo Securitized Reconceiving Urban Justice and Social Resilience (pp. 233-246). American University in Cairo Press.

Journal Article

• To be called forth by a speck of dust
  
  Nassar, A. (2024). To be called forth by a speck of dust. Dialogues in Human Geography. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206241240202
• An open letter to the SJTG and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG): The War on Gaza, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), and a Palestinian literary event
  
  Griffiths, M., Hughes, S., Mason, O., Nassar, A., & Currie, N. P. (2024). An open letter to the SJTG and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG): The War on Gaza, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), and a Palestinian literary event. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 45(1), 6-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12527
• Objects, memories, and storytelling: experiments in narrating ideas of home
  
  Nassar, A., Madbouly, M., Ezzat, A., Abazeed, A., Abdelrahman Soliman, N., Agha, M., El Khachab, C., Elwakil, A., Mourad, L., & Taha, M. (2023). Objects, memories, and storytelling: experiments in narrating ideas of home. City, 27(5-6), 1030-1051. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2023.2254166
• Decentring whiteness in engaging Muslim geographies
  
  Nassar, A. (2023). Decentring whiteness in engaging Muslim geographies. Dialogues in Human Geography, 13(3), 359-362. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206231178802
• Kites, billboards and bridges: Reading the city’s curfew through the glitch
  
  Nassar, A. (2023). Kites, billboards and bridges: Reading the city’s curfew through the glitch. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 41(4), 726-744. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758231196414
• Encountering Berlant part two: Cruel and other optimisms
  
  Anderson, B., Awal, A., Cockayne, D., Greenhough, B., Linz, J., Mazumdar, A., Nassar, A., Pettit, H., Roe, E. J., Ruez, D., Salas Landa, M., Secor, A., & Williams, A. (2023). Encountering Berlant part two: Cruel and other optimisms. The Geographical Journal, 189(1), 143-160. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12493
• Review forum War and the city : urban geopolitics in Lebanon
  
  Carpi, E., Fawaz, M., Fregonese, S., Ingram, A., Nassar, A., & Mason, O. (2023). Review forum War and the city : urban geopolitics in Lebanon. Political Geography, 100, Article 102777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102777
• Fragment(s) of Memor(ies): The Enduring Question of Space and Storytelling
  
  Madbouly, M., & Nassar, A. (2021). Fragment(s) of Memor(ies): The Enduring Question of Space and Storytelling. Égypte/Monde/Arabe, 23, 13-26. https://doi.org/10.4000/ema.14734
• Geopoetics: Storytelling against mastery
  
  Nassar, A. (2021). Geopoetics: Storytelling against mastery. Dialogues in Human Geography, 11(1), 27-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820620986397
• Geopoetics as Disruptive Aesthetics: Vignettes from Cairo
  
  Nassar, A. (2021). Geopoetics as Disruptive Aesthetics: Vignettes from Cairo. GeoHumanities, 7(2), 455-463. https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566x.2021.1913436
• To stand by the ruins of a revolutionary city
  
  Nassar, A. (2020). To stand by the ruins of a revolutionary city. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 52(3), 510-515. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020743820000689
• Feeling (y)our way in the dark: An interview with Jenny Perlin
  
  Perlin, J., Nieuwenhuis, M., & Nassar, A. (2019). Feeling (y)our way in the dark: An interview with Jenny Perlin. Emotion, Space and Society, 33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2019.100596
• Staging the State: Commemoration, Urban Space and the National Symbolic Order in 1970s Cairo
  
  Nassar, A. (2019). Staging the State: Commemoration, Urban Space and the National Symbolic Order in 1970s Cairo. Middle East Critique, 28(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2019.1633747
• Where the dust settles: fieldwork, subjectivity and materiality in Cairo
  
  Nassar, A. (2018). Where the dust settles: fieldwork, subjectivity and materiality in Cairo. Contemporary Social Science, 13(3-4), 412-428. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2017.1418521
• Dust: perfect circularity
  
  Nieuwenhuis, M., & Nassar, A. (2018). Dust: perfect circularity. Cultural Geographies, 25(3), 501-507. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474017747252
• ‘Being’ in Al-Azhar Park: Public Spaces in Cairo
  
  Nassar, A. (2013). ‘Being’ in Al-Azhar Park: Public Spaces in Cairo. The Open Urban Studies Journal, 6(1), 65-74. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874942901306010065

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Unmaking Route 10
  
  Ezzat, A., Nassar, A., & Albahar, I. (2025, May 23). Unmaking Route 10. Arabpop Rivista Di Arti E Letterature Arabe Contemporanee, no. 8 cose(Primavera 2025), 60-78.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Dust, desert and storytelling: Thinking with the grain of geography
  
  Nassar, A. (2024, December 12). Dust, desert and storytelling: Thinking with the grain of geography. Reading Decoloniality [Blog post].
• Palestine: Spaces and Politics Introductory Curriculum
  
  Qaddumi, D., Abusaada, N., Al-Shihabi, M., Azzouz, A., Henni, S., Judeh, L., Marei, F., Nassar, A., & Jabary Salamanca, O. (2024). Palestine: Spaces and Politics Introductory Curriculum [Teaching resource]. Arab Urbanism.
• Graphite geography
  
  Nassar, A. (2024, October 2 – 2024, December 15). Graphite geography [Printed exhibition book "Etymologies of Foam and Dust"]. Drawing Room.
• Cement
  
  Nassar, A. (2023, November 1). Cement [I-PEEL]. I-PEEL.
• Foreword: Attending to Infrastructure, Thinking from within the Blackout
  
  Jabary Salamanca, O., & Nassar, A. (2023, June 1). Foreword: Attending to Infrastructure, Thinking from within the Blackout [Arab Urbanism]. Arab Urbanism.
• Essential Readings on Cities and Materiality: The Making and Unmaking of Urban Space in the Middle East and North Africa
  
  Nassar, A. (2022). Essential Readings on Cities and Materiality: The Making and Unmaking of Urban Space in the Middle East and North Africa [Teaching resource]. www.Jadaliyya.com. and Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI).
• A GEOPOETICS OF DUST
  
  Nassar, A. (2022, October 1). A GEOPOETICS OF DUST [Website]. Disembodied Territories.