Join the British Institute for the Study of Iraq for this hybrid lecture by
Dr Sana Murrani
, author of Rupturing Architecture.
Dr Murrani's book critically and visually examines the spatial practices of refuge in Iraq from 2003 to 2023, exploring how ordinary Iraqis respond to war, violence, and displacement through creative and adaptive refuge-making. Written by an Iraqi architect who has lived through these traumas, it highlights the resilience and ingenuity of Iraqis in transforming homes, urban spaces, and border geographies into places of refuge.
Through methods such as creative deep mapping, memory work, storytelling, and interviews with 15 Iraqis, Rupturing Architecture uncovers the dual nature of rupture as both trauma and resistance. It investigates the interplay of domesticity, urbanity, and border spaces while advocating for spatial justice through a manifesto that integrates place, memory, and trauma, offering insights with global relevance.
The fieldwork, Ruptured Domesticity, for this research project was funded by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq. This talk will include some of the creative outputs from the research that audience members can take away.
Sana Murrani is an Associate Professor in Spatial Practice at the University of Plymouth and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Her research interests are rooted in spatial justice, drawing on her interdisciplinary background in architecture, urban design, and art and media. Her creative, place-based research practice maps built, destroyed, remembered, and reimagined trauma geographies of war, violence, and displacement with a particular focus on the Middle East.