Mohamad Nahleh

Mohamad Nahleh is a lecturer in architecture and urbanism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His interests include postcolonial literature, urban theory, Arab history and mythology, and Islamic cosmology. Nahleh’s research and practice work to decenter Western conceptions of darkness and the night. Rather than a backdrop against which contemporary modes of practice might be celebrated, the night in his work acquires a political sovereignty that dismantles the strict link between ‘night design’ and operations that strive to repress darkness—physically or symbolically—through illumination. His forthcoming book, Design After Dark, studies the transformation of the night in the Middle East following the expansion of Ottoman, French, and Zionist colonial projects. It reveals, in particular, how the people of Jabal ‘Amil in Lebanon collaborated with the night to design their liberation. His writing has been published in several journals and magazines, including Places, Thresholds, and The Funambulist. Nahleh is also a registered architect in Lebanon. His ongoing projects include the Path of Nightrise—a seven-kilometer walking trail that archives Jabal ‘Amil’s rich nocturnal legacy through a series of stations along the Litani river. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the American University of Beirut and a Master of Science in Architecture Studies from MIT. He is now a Journal of Architectural Education Fellow.