Nihal Ossama Hafez
Nihal Hafez is an urban researcher and a teaching assistant at the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University. She is a licensed architect since 2014. Her architectural practice focused on community development and heritage conservation in Cairo. She worked on projects developing different historic areas, namely the city of the dead in Cairo, Downtown Cairo, and Historic Cairo. On the academic level, she assisted various courses and studios of architecture and urban design. She earned her master’s degree from Cairo University in Urban Design and Community Development. Her MSc thesis “Reconstructing Memory by Commodifying History: A Study of the Phenomenon in Historic Cairo since the 19th Century” tackled the politics of the production of spaces for memory by foreign advocates in Historic Cairo. Her ongoing research examines institutional practices and their impact on historic areas as well as gender equity in the MENA region.