Team Members

PARTNER 1 : UMR CITERES 7324 CNRS & University of Tours

Coordinator of the project :
Dr. Gülçin ERDI, researcher in sociology at CNRS France, UMR CITERES. She works on urban transformation projects, right to the city, spatial justice and urban citizenship. Among her recent publications there is Identity, Justice and Resistance in the Neoliberal City (Palgrave), co-published with Yildirim Sentürk in 2017.

Dr. Azadeh Mashayekhi is a Lecturer in urban development planning at the Bartlett University College of London (UCL). Her research focuses on the political economy of urban change, and explores the mechanisms by which urban change takes place in cities of the global south. Her research interests focus on postcolonial critique of urban studies and specially on political and institutional dynamics of city making practices in the context of the Global South, in particular Middle Eastern cities. 

Denis Martouzet is a university professor of urban planning at the university of Tours and the director of the doctoral school “Sciences de la société : territoire, économie, droit”. His research mainly focuses on “the individual in situation” following three main research axes: living and the affective dimension of the relationship to the space, project and project theory in urbanism, ethic action and decision, rationality and affectivity. He published Le projet fait les acteurs. Urbanisme, complexité, incertitude (2018, Presses universitaires François-Rabelais).

Roman Stadnicki is an associate professor at University of Tours and member of the UMR CITERES. He is an associate researcher at the French research center in the Arabian peninsula (CEFREPA) in Kuwait. His research focuses in a geographical and urban studies perspectives on  urban activism, political transitions, and city branding. He recently coordinated with Bénédicte Florin, Anna Madoeuf, Olivier Sanmartin and Florence Troin Abécédaire de la ville au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient (2020, Presses université François-Rabelais)

Sibel Akyıldız is a PhD candidate in geography at University of Tours and at CITERES laboratory. She is also a researcher at IFEA – İstanbul and working as a lecturer at Yeditepe University in İstanbul. Her thesis focuses on the social, spatial and political effects of megaprojects. She recently published the book “Osmanlı’dan günümüze Validebağ Korusu: Tarihsel, Kültürel, Ekolojik müştereğimiz” (Validebağ Grove from the Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic: our historical, cultural, ecological common) (2022, Nobel Yayınları).

Amin Moghadam holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Lyon II, France. He is currently Senior Research Associate at Ryerson University, at The Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration. His current research explores ways in which the dynamics of space production in global cities intersect with the politics of housing and home making by emphasizing the role they play in migration trajectories and transnational practices, as well as in processes of class formation and integration in the host society. He recently published “Immigration and Revolution in Iran: Asylum politics and State Consolidation” (2022, REMHU: Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana) and “The Staging of Cultural Diversity in Dubai: The Case of Dubai Art Fair.” Identities 28, no. 6 (November 2, 2021).

Laura Monfleur is a PhD candidate in geography at University of Tours and at CITERES laboratory. She is also an associate PhD candidate at CEDEJ, Egypt. Her thesis focuses on the geography of political power and of public spaces in central Cairo and in the new administrative capital. She recently published “Walls as Interstitial Combinations: Security Infrastructure and Practices in Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Downtown Cairo” (User Experience and Urban Creativity, 2021).

Cosimo Pica is a PhD candidate at the University of Tours, UMR Citeres, EMAM – Arab World and Mediterranean research group. His research focuses on the articulation between international migration, national identity construction and the spatial dimension of social interactions in the urban context of marginalized neighborhoods in Istanbul and Ankara. He is a research associate at IFEA – İstanbul and he teaches courses in contemporary sociology and urban studies at the University of Tours. He recently published Embodying Geopolitics. Generations of Women’s Activism in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon de Nicola Pratt (2023) and Libertés académiques en Turquie : répression et stratégies de résistance dans un contexte autoritaire (2022) with Prof. G. Erdi.

Vincent Delcourt, Photographer: Photography is a meeting. This encounter allows for the creation of an image. As a photographer based in Tours, I travel according to projects. I specialize in photographic reporting on professions, and through images, I highlight the individuals and their expertise. Currently, I am working on the world of farmers and rural areas in Indre et Loire. I am also preparing an exhibition in Ankara on small professions and the craftsmanship specific to Ankara, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Ankara becoming the capital of the Republic of Turkey.

Dr. Clara Rivas Alonso is the project postdoctoral researcher.  She holds a PhD from the University of Leicester (UK)  titled “State-led gentrification and time in Okmeydanı, Istanbul: Resisting uncertainties through everyday solidarities”.  Her research focuses on the emergence of temporalities that allow dwellers to cope with institutional and state-produced limbos. Her research interests focus on temporalities of urban resistances, urban justice and survivability, vulnerability and ethnographic methods, decolonizing knowledge production and feminist methodologies. She recently published ‘(Dis)Locating fieldwork: relational approaches to research through a contested neighbourhood in Istanbul’ (Urban Matters Journal, May 2022).

PARTNER 2 : UMR 7218 LAVUE CNRS & ENSA La Villette & Univ. Paris 10 et 8

Mina Saïdi is an architect, anthropologue and documentarian as a member of the LAVUE laboratory. She filmed several documentaries that have been selected in many international festivals. She recently published “Enquêter l’espace public par l’image. Dialogue entre deux chercheuses cinéastes” (2021).

Agnès Deboulet is a professor of sociology at the University of Paris‑8 Vincennes Saint‑Denis and researcher at LAVUE laboratory (Research Center on Habitat – Laboratory of architecture, city, town planning, environment; UMR 7218, CNRS). She is a member of Center Sud and chairs the APPUII association.Her research themes are urban sociology, the sociology of migrations, internationalization, urban renewal in the north and south, poverty and vulnerabilities. She directed Rethinking precarious neighbourhoods (2016).

Dalia Wahdan is an anthropologist who is deeply interested in the ‘urban’ particularly the perennial dialectics of man and nature. She holds a Ph.D. from Pune University, India and a Masters from the American University in Cairo. The Masters’ thesis was an examination of spatial inequities manufactured and sustained by the construction of new urban settlements in Egypt and the doctoral dissertation was a comparison of the privatization of road networks and their implications on physical mobility in the national capital region of Delhi and greater Cairo region.

Laure Assaf is an anthropologist and a specialist of Middle Eastern studies. Her research interests focus on youth, urbanity, and migration in contemporary Emirati society and the broader Gulf region. She was trained in anthropology at Paris Nanterre University and in Arabic at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris. She is currently working on a book manuscript derived from her PhD thesis, entitled Arab youths of Abu Dhabi: Status categories, urban sociability and the shaping of subjectivities in the United Arab Emirates (2017). She is also an Associate Researcher at the French Center for Archeology and Social Sciences (CEFAS) in Kuwait.

Kawkab Tawfik is an ethnomusicologist and research associate at the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire (IFAO) and the Centre D’etudes et de Documentation Economiques, Juridiques Et Sociales (CEDEJ) where she conducted postdoctoral research with participatory methodology on the Zār of the Delta of Egypt (2021-22). She obtained a PhD in Cultural Heritage (2020) from the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” with a research project on music, politics and identity in Egypt post-2011. She curates the program “ASWAT – Music Heritage Insights” (2021-2023) at the IFAO, the ASWAT podcast on Egyptian music from the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) and the music project “Salila: The Master of the Water” with a grant from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture – AFAC.

Corten Pérez-Houis is a PhD candidate in geography at University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne. His research focuses on the place of the red brick supply chain in the production of Khartoum (Sudan) and Cairo (Egypt). This study aims to develop a material approach of urban spaces.

Grégory Busquet, is associate professor  in sociology at the Paris-Nanterre University and researcher at LAVUE (Laboratory of architecture, city, urban planning, environment; UMR 7218; Mosaïques team ). His research focuses on the relationship between space and politics, the right to the city and collective memories, through urban renewal and urban social movements in France and Great Britain. He coordinated, with Céline Barrère, Adriana Diaconu, Muriel Girard, Ioana Iosa, Mémoires et patrimoines. Des revendications aux conflits, (2017, L’Harmattan).

Anahi Alviso-Marino is a researcher and scholar currently working on monuments and public art across cities of the Arabian Peninsula, and previously, on proposing a political sociology of visual arts in Yemen. She combines political sociology and ethnography with a methodological approach at the intersection of social sciences and audiovisual practices using creative protocols and games to decentre knowledge production, disciplinary hierarchies, and approaches to archival and research materials about cities, monuments, and the state. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University Paris 1-Sorbonne and the University of Lausanne. She is a researcher fellow and co-coordinator at the collective “Penser l’urbain par l’image,” Ecole des Ponts ParisTech since December 2020. She recently published “A Monument Once Called ‘Kuwaiti Women, Giving and Sacrifice’”, in Monumental Shadows. On museums, memory and the making of history, (Art Jameel, Kaph Books, 2023).

Ahmed Zaazaa is a researcher and urban designer, focusing on social and climate justice in housing and planning. Lately, Zaazaa co-founded two entities; the latest was “10 Tooba: Applied Research on the Built Environment”. Through 10 Tooba, Zaazaa contributed to publishing studies and manuals concerning the participatory upgrading fields. Also, he is leading participatory projects with deprived and marginalized communities in different informal areas in Cairo. Zaazaa is also the co-founder of “Madd Platform” that works closely with local communities, in co-production of research, planning and advocacy. Academically, Zaazaa’ worked as an assistant professor by practice in “Nile University” and Lecturer in the “Arab Academy for Science and Technology”.

Randa A. Mahmoud, an Architect-Urbanist, is the visionary behind “Le 51 Design”; specializing in Architecture, Urban Design, and more. Her academic journey led her to complete her PhD studies in France at the IUP (Institut d’Urbanisme de Paris) University of Paris-12 Val-de-Marne. Currently, she is a Professor of Environmental Planning at Ain Shams University, alongside her role as a Senior Architect and Urban Planner at Dar.
Randa is the former head of the Architecture Department, and she is currently the coordinator of the dual diploma program at the French University of Egypt. Randa earned recognition when she was nominated for the Agha Award for Architecture in the 2013
cycle, primarily for her work on the residential project “Beit Ãl Rawi”; Her extensive contributions to academia and the field of architecture are underscored by numerous international and local publications, focusing on areas such as urban and social resilience, vernacular architecture, gentrification, social inclusion and Climate comfort.

PARTNER 3 : USR 3131 IFEA CNRS & MAE

Bayram Balci hold a PhD thesis in political sciences on Turkish Islamist movements and their missionary activities in post-Soviet Central Asia. From 2006 to 2010, he directed the French Institute for Central Asian Studies (IFEAC) in Tashkent. From December 2012 to September 2014, he was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in Washington DC. His current research focuses on the relationship between Islam and politics in the post-Soviet space and on Turkey in its regional environment, Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East. Bayram Balci is currently the Director of the French Institute of Anatolian Studies (IEFA).

Savaş Zafer Şahin: After graduating from METU City and Regional Planning Department, Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Savaş Zafer Şahin worked as an urban planner and project manager at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Ankara Special Provincial Administration. He is still working as a lecturer at Atılım University and the Middle East Technical University. He recently published “Kindness More Contagious Than Viruses: An Inclusive and Innovative Response to Inequalities in Ankara” (2021, Policy and planning).

Agathe Fautras is a PhD candidate in Geography at the Sorbonne university and an associate researcher at the French Institute of Anatolian Studies (IFEA) where she currently coordinates the urban observatory (OUI) since 2021. Her research focuses on the spatial dimension of social movements and activism, urban transformation and neoliberalisation in Turkey, Istanbul. She recently published with Jean-François Pérouse and Filiz Hervet: “Le nouvel Istanbul: dimensions, dynamiques et vulnérabilité” (2021, Historiens & Géographes).

Youenn Gourain is a PhD candidate in urban planning member of the LATTS and an associate researcher at the French Institute of Anatolian Studies (IFEA) where he coordinated the urban observatory (OUI) between 2019 and 2021. His thesis focuses on the integration of urban risks in Istanbul’s urban fabrics. He recently published “Cartographier le risque et produire la ville: le cas du microzonage sismique à Istanbul” (2021, Cartes & géomatique).

PARTNER 4 : IGRAS (Russian Academy of Science/Institut of Geography)

Vladimir Kolossov is the head of the laboratory of Geopolitical studies at the Institute of Geography of the Russian academy of sciences and the president of the international geographical union. His main research interests are political geography, the urban geography and connection between social dynamics and international relations in many study areas in Europe, Caucasus and Asia. He published many articles and books in geopolitics.

Olga Vendina is a leading researcher in the Institute of Geography at the Russian academy of sciences. Her main interests are the transformation processes in Moscow and Russian cities, interethnic relationships and the impact of socio-cultural and political processes on urban and regional developments. She is a participant of the international consultation on the Greater Moscow development. The most recent publication on Moscow is “The Moscow neighborhoods: local communities, city environment and concerns over increasing ethic and cultural diversity». (2021, The Russian Public Opinion Herald)

Maria Zotova is an associate professor at the faculty of geography and geoinformation technology at the HSE university. Her work focuses on state  borders, sociocultural perceptions and unrecognized states. She recently published with Vladimir Kolosov and Andrei Medvedev “Comparing the development of border regions with the use of GIS (the case of Russia)” (2018, Geographia Polonica).

PARTNER 5 : USR 3140 IFEAC CNRS & MAE

Julian Thorez is a researcher in geography at CNRS. As a member of the laboratory of Iranian and Indian worlds, his research focuses on nomadisms, territorial buildings in Central Asia. He holds a PhD in geography (2005) based on flux and spatial dynamics in Central Asia after the Soviet-union. He coordinated Asie centrale. Des indépendances à la mondialisation (2015).

Paul Wolkenstein is an architect and holds a PhD in History, Societies and Civilizations (Inalco, Paris). His research interests include the history of the modern movement in architecture, the relationship between ideology and spatiality, the Soviet cities and post-socialist and post-colonial urban contexts.

Vladimir Pawlotsky is a lecturer and research fellow at the French Institute of Geopolitics (University of Paris 8). In 2022, he defended his PhD thesis in Geography and Slavic Studies: “Building Greater Moscow as a Metropolitan City: Local Geopolitics of the Moscow Urban Area in the Russian Federal System”. Since 2022, he is co-director of the Master 2 programme “Local Geopolitics” at the French Institute of Geopolitics. He is currently working on land use conflicts and metropolitan governance in authoritarian contexts. His last article : Pawlotsky V., « La “modernisation autoritaire” de la Russie par l’urbain : quelles leçons tirer
du Nouveau Moscou ? », Métropolitiques, November 2023. Online: https://metropolitiques.eu/La-modernisation-autoritaire-de-la-Russie-par-l-urbain-