The second installment in the Dongola Architecture Series, dedicated to the great voices of contemporary architecture in the Arab culture, delves into the life and work of the distinguished Syrian architect and architecture historian Nasser Rabbat.
This publication underscores the profound connection between Rabbat's upbringing in Syria during a period of significant political transformation and his development as a critical thinker and storyteller. His journey from a reluctant choice to study architecture to becoming a prominent figure as the Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT illustrates his unceasing commitment to expanding the horizons of historiography, particularly within the realm of non-Western voices.
"Critical Encounters: Nasser Rabbat" seeks to deepen our understanding of the urgency of history to enable the possibilities of questioning and reimagining dominant powers. Professor Rabbat's work presents a compelling account within the broader context of Arab thinkers actively reshaping their region's narrative and pushing for a more inclusive and diverse historical perspective.
As Editor in Chief, Raafat Majzoub has conceptualized, and written the manuscript for the first issue of the Dongola Architecture Series (DAS), and is an integral part of the series's continued development. Majzoub is an architect, artist, writer, the director of The Khan: The Arab Association for Prototyping Cultural Practices, and previously was a lecturer in the Architecture and Design Department at the American University of Beirut. His work explores world-building through experiments in new pedagogy which are focused on the abandonment of the notion of one truth and the development of inclusive, collaborative teaching and learning methods. He is the co-founder of the Beirut-based The Outpost magazine, where he also published two literary supplements: The Perfumed Garden (novella) and L'Origine(s) du Monde (illustrated children's book with artist Joan Baz). His writing has been published in recto:verso, Perpetual Postponement, antiAtlas Journal, Contemporary Theatre Review, and Al-Akhbar newspaper. He has presented papers and artist lectures focused on worldbuilding and speculative fiction in the Beirut Art Center,
École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, and Kaaitheater in Brussels.
An architect and a historian, Nasser Rabbat is the Aga Khan Professor of the History of Islamic Architecture and the director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His scholarly interests include the history and historiography of Islamic architecture, art, and cultures, urban history, and post-colonial criticism. He teaches lecture courses Islamic architecture and seminars on the history of Islamic urbanism and contemporary cities, orientalism, and more. In his research and teaching he presents architecture in ways that illuminate its interaction with culture and society and stress the role of human agency in shaping that interplay. He has published some hundred scholarly articles and book sections in English, Arabic, and French. He was a visiting professor at the EHESS and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, fellow at The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship and the American Research Center in Egypt and holder of the Chaire de l'Institut du Monde Arabe. Nasser Rabbat worked as an architect in Los Angeles and Damascus.
