
Samaa Elimam
Lecturer
Samaa Elimam’s research examines the histories of technology, empire, and environment in the 19th century. Her doctoral work at Harvard University investigates the links between engineering techniques, landscape, and the production of the past in the Nile Valley under Ottoman rule, with a focus on the relationship between Egypt and Sudan. Previous writing topics have explored rival conceptions of technical knowledge, including eighteenth century land surveying methods and early-19th-century ideas of public utility, optimization, and aesthetics in the design of public works. Her dissertation research has been supported by fellowships from the Society for the History of Technology, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Before her PhD, Elimam worked as an architectural designer at offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Cairo, and later, a visiting studio instructor at the American University in Cairo. She completed her Master in Architecture with distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where her thesis in the New Geographies Lab analyzed infrastructural networks in the Nile Delta through a lens of Mediterranean environmental history. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with highest honors from the University of California, Berkeley.
Education
PhD, Harvard GSD |
BA, Architecture, University of California, Berkeley |