Kassem Eida

Kassem Eida is a Ph.D. candidate in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS). He is a recipient of the Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities and is currently conducting his doctoral research under the supervision of Professor Laleh Khalili and Professor Adam Hanieh.

Kassem's Ph.D. research aims to overcome methodological nationalism by historicizing, contextualizing, and critically examining how transnational movements of capital and labour are both shaped by, and shape, displacement, war-making, and nation- and state formation in the Middle East. Drawing on the political economy and politics of infrastructure as its central theoretical framework, his research examines the post-cataclysmic displacement of capital and labour and its reconfiguration within transnational circuits of capital, analysing their implications for postcolonial nation-/state-building, infrastructural and economic development, labour regimes, regional class formation, and capital accumulation in the Middle East.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

Prior to pursuing his PhD studies, Kassem spent 15 years working as an architect with international consulting firms in Frankfurt, Berlin, and Lisbon. His academic and professional experience integrates multidisciplinary research, design, and strategic project consultancy, spanning architecture, urban planning, real estate due diligence, cultural heritage, and sustainability. His portfolio includes international project collaborations across major cities such as Berlin, Lisbon, Beirut, Madrid, Frankfurt, Riyadh, Doha, Tallinn, Wrocław, and Seville.

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Kassem holds a M.Sc. in Architecture from the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus, Germany (2012). His Master’s dissertation examined the infrastructure networks, transnational commodity flows, and the movement of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers across the militarized Morocco–Spain border, with a particular focus on the geopolitically contested Spanish-controlled enclave of Ceuta on the North African coast. Furthermore, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the American University of Beirut (2009).

RESEARCH & DESIGN PROJECTS 

• 2019-2021 | Project: "Urban Development Regulatory and Land Use Frameworks, Property Design Guidelines, and Urban Codes for the City of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia". AS+P, Frankfurt, Germany
• 2012 | Master Thesis: "Enclave, Exclave: Productive Borders between Conflict and Exchange — A Study of Borders, Flows and Spatial Transformations in the Spanish Enclave of Ceuta". University of Seville, Spain; Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany
• 2011 | Project Workshop: "Territory, Cultural Landscape, and Urban Development along the Southern Andalusian Coast: Urban Research, Spatial Analysis, and Cartographies of the Costa del Sol". University of Seville, Spain
• 2011 | Project Workshop: "Wroclaw Industrial Heritage: Territorial Development Frameworks and Urban Design Strategies". Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland
• 2011 | Project Workshop: "Rethinking Sustainability from Below: Grassroots Practices and Socio-Economic Dimensions of Circular Economy within Informal Urban Settlements". Tallinn University of Applied Sciences, Estonia
• 2011 | Project Workshop: "Spatial Transformation of the Former GDR Stasi Secret Service Building in Cottbus: Engaging with History, Collective Memory, and Architecture of Political Power". Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany
• 2009 | Project Workshop: "Beirut Post-Traumatic Urbanism. Investigating Post-Civil-War Urban Peripheries and Voids along Beirut’s East-West Demarcation Line". American University of Beirut; University of Technology Sydney
• 2007 | Project:"Dahyeh Untitled: Rethinking Beirut’s Southern Suburb in the Aftermath of the 2006 Israeli War on Lebanon — Ethnographic Research, Cognitive and Spatial Mapping". American University of Beirut
• 2007 | Project: "Revisiting Hamra Street: Spatial Transformation, Evolving Programmes, Actors and Agents, Boundaries, and Political-Sectarian Networks in Ras Beirut". American University of Beirut
• 2008 | Project: "Modernist Architecture in Lebanon: Surveying, Documentation, and Archiving". American University of Beirut; Arab Center for Architecture (ACA) Archives

FILMS TRANSLATIONS

• 2018-2019 | Protagonist and Translator: “Tracing Palestinian Diaspora: From Tarshiha, Palestine, to Bourj El-Barajneh Refugee Camp, Lebanon”. Film Directors: Dror Dayan & Anne Paq (Link)
• 2016-2018 | Translator: “Not Just Your Picture: The Story of the Kilani Family”. Directors: Dror Dayan & Anne Paq (Link)
• 2014-2016 | Translator: “Even Though My Land is Burning”. Film Director: Dror Dayan (Link)