Email: N.Nasser@greenwich.ac.uk
About
Dr Nasser is an architect and academic with an interest in the influence of culture on urban form and design. Her doctoral thesis examined the historical and cultural processes attributed to Islam-dominant dynasties in the development of the walled city of Cairo. These processes were re-considered in light of the degradation of historic Cairo due to a lack of conservation planning and unchecked heritage tourism to provide a framework for urban regeneration. This work was developed further at post-doctoral level to explore the influence of Muslim minorities on the changing urban morphology of British cities. As a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr Nasser organized a transatlantic conference on Islamizing the Cosmopolis which will form the basis of an authored book.
More recently, she has widened her research to examine other UK-based minority cultures and their adaptations of urban spaces through community-led consultancy projects.
In addition to her membership of the Urban Morphology Research Group (UMRG), she is a member of the International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF).
Selected publications
South Asian Muslims in Britain: identity in architecture and urbanism (2005) Journal of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations Vol 16 (1), pp. 61-78.
Southall’s Kaleido-scape: A study in the changing morphology of a west London suburb in special issue: The Cosmopolis: emerging multicultural spaces in Europe and North America (2004) Built Environment. Vol 3 (1) pp. 76-103
South Asian Ethnoscapes: the changing cultural landscapes of British cities in Global Built Environment Review (December 2003), vol. 3(2) pp. 26-39.
The Space of Displacement: The Making of Muslim South Asian Places in Britain (Fall 2003) Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. pp. 7-21
The Challenge of Ethnoscapes (April, 2003). Urban Morphology, 7 (1), pp. 45-48.
Cultural continuity and meaning of place: an approach to sustaining historic cities of the Islamicate World (March 2003). Journal of Architectural Conservation, 9 (1), pp.77-94.
Islamicate Urbanism: The State of the Art (2002). Built Environment Vol 28 (3), pp. 173-186.
Urban Design in Egypt (forthcoming) in (ed) Loew, S. Urban Design: a Global Review. RIBA press.
Metropolitan Borderlands: The Formation of Br-Asian Landscapes (2006) in (eds) Ali, N., Karla, V. and Sayyid, S. Post-colonial people: South Asian Settlement in Britain. Hurst, London.
A Historiography of tourism in Cairo: A spatial Perspective (2006) in (ed.) Daher, R. Tourism in the Middle East: Continuity, Change and Transformation. Part of series (ed.) Robinson, M. Tourism and Cultural Change. Channel View Publications, pp70-94.
South Asian Ethnoscapes: The Changing Landscapes of British Cities (2005) In Shakur, T. (ed) Cities in Transition: Transforming the Global Built Environment. Open House Press, UK, pp42-57.
Selected conference papers
Is UK planning a barrier to the post-carbon city? Lessons from Cairo. Paper presented to International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF), Montreal, August 2011.
Theatricality and the Adorning of the City for the 2012 Games: the case of the Royal Borough of Greenwich paper presented to the conference Olympics and The City, Greenwich University, June 2011.