Samia Henni

Samia Henni's teaching and research interests include the history and theory of the built and destroyed environments in relation to colonialism, forced displacement, gender, nuclear weapons, and wars from the first European colonization to the present. She is the author of the multi-award-winning Architecture of Counterrevolution: The French Army in Northern Algeria (EN, 2017; 2019, FR), the editor of War Zones: gta papers 2 (2018), and the maker of exhibitions such as Housing Pharmacology (2020) and Discreet Violence: Architecture and the French War in Algeria (2017–19). In 2021, she was appointed the inaugural Albert Hirschman Chair at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Aix-Marseille University (IMéRA); Visiting Professor in Art History in a Global Context at the Institute of Art History at the University of Zurich; and Visiting Geddes Fellow at Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh.She is working on a book provisionally titled Colonial Toxicity: The French Army in the Sahara and an edited volume titled Deserts are not Empty. Henni taught at Princeton University, ETH Zurich, and Geneva University of Art and Design. She studied at the École polytechnique d'architecture et d'urbanisme in Algiers; Accademia di Architettura, Università della Svizzera Italiana in Mendrisio; The Berlage Institute in Rotterdam; and at Goldsmiths, University of London. Henni received her Ph.D. in the history and theory of architecture (with distinction, ETH Medal) from ETH Zurich.