Zehra Ahmed

Zehra Ahmed is a researcher and writer based in Chicago whose work focuses on architectural history and culture in the modern Middle East and North Africa. Currently, she is developing an archive of projects and architects to expand knowledge of the Arab city and resurface its overlooked histories, typologies, elements, concepts, and modes of representation for contemporary design. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor at UIC and the 2024–2025 Douglas A. Garofalo Fellow. Prior to joining UIC, she earned an MA in the History and Theory of Architecture, where her research considered the history of postmodernism in a postcolonial context. She served as text editor for the publication Crown Hall Dean’s Dialogues 2012-2017, and her writings have been published in DAr, a journal that investigates the formal architectural values of the Islamic world, and Flat Out, a journal of design criticism on which she also serves as a member of the editorial board.