Selena al-Layl Syed

Selena al-Layl Syed is a graduate student in the Master of Science in Architecture Studies at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Art & Architecture. Before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, she received her Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and Art History at Victoria College from the University of Toronto. 

Currently, she is a researcher for Dr. Michele Lamprakos' forthcoming book, Memento Mauri: the Afterlife of the Great Mosque of Cordoba (spring 2027) in which the building’s changing fabric and meaning as cathedral, historic monument, and symbol of the Islamic past in Spain are explored. 

Syed also actively works towards her Master Thesis, with the advisory of Dr. Nasser Rabbat. Such interests delve into the cultures of Islamic empires, interested in how visual and physical manifestations mediate perceptions of human experience. Over particular chronologies or geographies, her work rather investigates the movement of concepts, traditions, and practices examining how medieval and early modern traditions continue to shape contemporary thought and speculative futures.