Nihal AbdelGawwad is an assistant professor – on leave – at the Architecture Department of Cairo University, who is currently the chair of the Architecture Department at Effat College of Architecture and Design. AbdelGawwad has over 12 years of teaching experience, in architecture, urban design and community development. Nihal’s passion and interest are into the field of urban design and its impact on communities’ development. Her PhD thesis and related research tackled residents’ comprehension and reactions towards their urban areas’ design. Following this interest, AbdelGawwad was granted a short research visit to Hafencity Universität in Hamburg, Germany, where she developed her PhD framework of social-psychology approach to tracing urban design-communities relationship. Nihal participated in international events tackling issues of urban and communities’ development in Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and different parts of Egypt, as Old Cairo, Esna, Siwa and South Sinai. These events enhanced her teaching methods and widened her perspective on how different countries, cultures and governments comprehend and approach community development differently, and shed light on other aspects intangled with it as sustainability, participation, and management. This international and local outreach helped AbdelGawwad to work professionally in projects that involved research on sustainable development, in collaboration with Egyptian governmental bodies as GOPP, Cairo Governorate, Science and Technology Development Fund (STDF) and Ministry of Urban Redevelopment and Informal Settlements (MURIS), and international research and funding entities as University of New Castle, German Egyptian Research Fund (GERF), and UNHABITAT. AbdelGawwad continues investigation in communities’ development through research that tackles different environments’ designs, affordances, and prospects for better residents’ quality of life. Besides her teaching and research experience, Nihal occupied several coordination and administrative positions. She was a representative member in the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University’s committee of Students Affairs. She held the position of a program quality assurance coordinator, graduation project coordinator and a member of the organizing committee for the two international conferences of ArchCairo 7 and 8.
