Dr Diala Lteif
I am a planner and urban historian of the modern Middle-East and my research explores the role of subaltern populations in the production of space and cities. I hold a PhD in Planning from the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. My doctoral research was supported by a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation’s Doctoral Scholarship and an Ontario Trillium Graduate Award. I also hold an MFA in Transdisciplinary Design from Parsons the New School for Design which I pursued as a Fulbright scholar. Up until 2016, I served as full-time faculty and deputy director to the Design Department at ALBA (Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts), where I taught the Global Design studio to first year masters students and supervised MA thesis projects.
I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of History, a position funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). I am also a College Research Associate at St John's College.
My research focuses on the role of migration and class struggle in the production of space and aims to center marginalized communities, such as refugees, migrants, and laborers, within urban historical narratives.
My doctorate considers these questions through an urban historical study of the Karantina neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon over a century (1918-2018); and my postdoctoral work builds on this project and examines the intersection of labor mobilizations and urban politics. More specifically, I investigate a forgotten mobilization led by the Butchers Union & Livestock Traders Syndicate (BULTS) in the 1960s in Beirut, Lebanon. This specific labor struggle yielded historic victories for BULTS and set an important precedent for similar union-led activity in Lebanon.
Contact
Tags & Themes
Publications
Journal publications
– Lteif, Diala. “IDPs of East Beirut versus the Lebanese State.” Forced Migration Review, Issue 62, (October 2019): 53–54.
– Lteif, Diala. “L’intégration d’une approche innovante: Le Design Global au Liban cas d’étude de la section design de l’École des Arts Décoratifs à l’ALBA.” [Integrating an innovative approach: Global Design in Lebanon, case study: Design Department at ALBA]. In Actes des 10e Ateliers de la recherche en design, Montréal, Québec, 21-24 (Octobre 2015): 65–70. Université de Montréal: Groupe Design et société, 2018.
Selected media articles and other publications
– Lteif, Diala. “Change for Beirut must start in the oppressed neighborhood of Karantina.” Toronto Star. August 17, 2020. Opinion.
– Lteif, Diala. “كي لا ننسى الكرنتينا. [Lest we forget Karantina]”. Al-Jumhuriyah, August 25, 2020. Opinion.
– Lteif, Diala. “The Lebanon Revolution takes on the media: A resource on alternative news outlets”, Jadaliyya, December 23, 2019.