Joomi Lee

I was trained as a geographer at Oxford and am currently pursuing doctoral research at UT Austin. My research focuses on large-scale urban renewal projects in the Arab world, especially in the context of Morocco’s unique monarchy-centered politics. My scholarly interests, however, include more general themes such as global urbanism in Arab states, Islamic urbanism in North African madinas, and French colonial history in the Islamic world. Initially trained as a sociologist in South Korea, I have a longstanding interest in the politico-historical process of (Japanese) colonization, de-colonization, modernization and democratization, while in my current research I am focused on the Maghreb (French North Africa) region. I have travelled extensively in the Middle East, including Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and worked in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.