Conflict in Cities is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain (grant number: RES-060-25-0015)
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Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge
1-5 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge CB2 1PX, UK
Monika Halkort
Educational Background and Experience:
BSc honours degree in Social and Cultural Studies at Open University in 2005 and a MA degree in Social Research at Goldsmiths University London, in 2007. Her MA dissertation focused on the social and political void surrounding Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon.
Experience working as a broadcast journalist for more then 15 years, producing documentaries and features on social, political and cultural affairs in Lebanon, Israel-Palestine, Syria and Iran as well as selected countries in Asia and the USA.
During the 1990s Monika studied new media authoring and development at San Francisco State University.
Working Title of Thesis:
Taming the Insurgent city. On the politics of time and territory in a Palestinian Refugee camp in Lebanon.
Abstract/Main Argument/Field of Enquiry:
This project discusses the role of property in constituting political subjectivities of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Drawing upon long term observational fieldwork in which I followed the reconstruction of Nahr el Bared, a refugee camp in the North, I will explore to what extent GIS and socio demographic data have become new battlegrounds for stateless populations in defending their interests against humanitarian agencies and the global post 9/11 security regime. Particular emphasis will be put on the potential of copyright in facilitating processes of political claim making in contexts where questions of belonging, rights and entitlements remain ambiguous and unclear. In doing so, I hope to contribute to critical discourses on architecture and de-colonisation and to evaluating the performative potential of the database and electronic archives as political form.
E-mail: monika@halkort.com
PhD students:
Anita Bakshi
Architecture, University of Cambridge (Nicosia)
Giulia Carabelli
Sociology, Queens University Belfast (Mostar)
Monika Halkort
Sociology, Queens University Belfast (Nahr el Bared refugee camp, Tripoli, Lebanon)
Konstantin Kastrissianakis
Architecture, University of Cambridge (Beirut)
Karl O'Connor
Politics, University of Exeter (Brussels, Nicosia and Beirut)
Linda Rootamm
Sociology, Queens University Belfast (Berlin)
Kelsey Shanks
Politics, University of Exeter (Kirkuk)
Affiliated Graduates
Annie Kane-Horrigan
Sociology, Queens University Belfast (Belfast)
Brendan Browne
Sociology, Queens University Belfast (Ramallah/Belfast)