Rate My Professor Gamal Abdelmonem

Professor Gamal Abdelmonem is Chair of Architecture and Founding Director of Research at the York School of Architecture, Department of Architecture and the Built Environment, University of York. Trained as an architect, he obtained his PhD from Sheffield School of Architecture and has built a career as an architectural and urban historian exploring anthropological and cultural interconnections of architecture as a profession, building practice, and everyday life. His research specializations encompass architectural history and theory, urban heritage preservation and regeneration, historic cities, architecture of home and urban culture, socio-spatial practices of urban communities, museums of the future, virtual heritage technologies, and post-conflict cities. Abdelmonem leads the PhD/MPhil in Architecture programmes and is Founding Director of the Centre for Architecture, Urbanism and Global Heritage (CAUGH) since 2017. Prior to York, he was Chair of Architecture at Nottingham Trent University, leading the Global Heritage Research Theme—the first Research Peak on Cultural Heritage—and the Virtual Heritage Research Centre (HeritageCAVE). He held academic and leadership roles at Queen’s University Belfast as BA Course Lead, Sheffield School of Architecture, and University of Wolverhampton. As Visiting Professor, he has served at the University of California, Berkeley (2015-2016), Royal College of Art (2013-2014), Beijing Institute of Technology (2022-), and CEPT University (2023-).

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and Higher Education Academy (FHEA), and Patron of the Home Renaissance Foundation, Abdelmonem is a multiple award winner, including the Queen’s Anniversary Prize (2022)—the UK’s highest national award for research—NTU Research Excellence Award (2020), Jeffrey Cook Award (2014), and runner-up for the Newton Prize (2020). His research was featured as the REF2021 Best Practice Impact Case Study across Architecture and the Built Environment in the UK National Review. Key publications include ‘Peripheries: Edge Conditions in Architecture’ (2012), ‘Portrush: Towards an Architecture for the North Irish Coast’ (2013), ‘The Architecture of Home in Cairo’ (2016), ‘Architecture, Space and Memory of Resurrection in Northern Ireland’ (2019), and ‘People, Care and Work in the Home’ (2020). He has delivered invited lectures worldwide, such as at SOAS University of London (2024), CEPT University (2022), UNESCO Chair Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (2021), and British Museum (2022). Abdelmonem sits on strategic research and funding committees for UKRI, Horizon Europe, Germany, Portugal, and others, and holds memberships in RIBA, SAHGB, and MESA. His work has informed governments, international organizations, and policies.