Yasser Elsheshtawy

Yasser Elsheshtawy is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, DC, and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). His research centers on informal urbanism and environment–behavior studies, with a particular focus on cities in the Middle East.

He is also an independent consultant and has collaborated on numerous projects in Saudi Arabia with leading architectural and planning firms. From 1997 to 2017, he taught at the United Arab Emirates University, and in 2016 he served as Curator of the UAE Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. In fall 2017, he was a Visiting Professor at Université Paris-Sorbonne.

Elsheshtawy has authored more than 70 publications, including Riyadh: Transforming a Desert City, Temporary Cities, and Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle. His forthcoming book is titled Arab Modernism(s): Cities, History and Culture. He is also the editor of The Evolving Arab City, which received the 2010 International Planning History Society Best Book Award, and Planning Middle Eastern Cities. His contributions to the field include two chapters on Arab urban development in the widely used City Planning and Urban Design Readers.

He is a recipient of the 2024 Zayed National Museum Research Fund, where he examined Abu Dhabi’s housing landscape. He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, a Master of Architecture from Pennsylvania State University, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Cairo University.