Faten Kikano

Faten Kikano is an expert in the study of governance and power asymmetries in refugee spaces. She holds a PhD from La faculté de l’Aménagement at Université de Montréal. She studies the appropriation of camps and non-camps spaces based on a transdisciplinary approach, revealing the political, socioeconomic, legal, and humanitarian issues that influence refugees’ wellbeing. Drawing from an experience of 20 years as a practitioner and a university professor, she has developed workshops on humanitarian architecture and post-disaster reconstruction in Turkey, Jordan, and Canada targeting local architects and urban planners. She has a great competence in editing, peer-reviewed publishing, and disseminating information on international platforms. Faten holds the position of a researcher at the Cérsé, a research center that targets socioecological transition. She is presently developing projects on homelessness in Montreal, urban vulnerability amongst indigenous populations, appropriation of public space by stigmatized communities, and climate change adaptation. She is a board member of Architecture Sans Frontières International, where she leads the migration working group and a researcher in l’Observatoire Canadien sur les Crises et l’Action Humanitaires (OCCAH). She collaborates with Œuvre Durable, an multidisciplinary research team at Université de Montréal, McGill University, and Concordia University funded by the Canadian Government. It focuses on climate change adaptation in informal settings. She is also on the interdisciplinary consultancy board of Architecture Sans Frontières Québec (ASFQ) on the research project “Solidatité Urbaine”.