Ph.D. Alumnus Ümit Fırat Açıkgöz has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon this year. Açıkgöz was previously a visiting assistant professor at the University of Beirut for the past three years and led courses focused on the history of art, architecture surveys for architecture and graphic design students, and an elective course on Istanbul.
Next spring, Açıkgöz will be a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Department of History of Art and Architecture where he will concentrate on research for his upcoming book project.
Receiving his Ph.D. at Rice in the art history department in 2018 under the direction of Dr. Shirine Hamadeh, Açıkgöz’s research focuses on urban modernization and historic preservation in the Middle East and the Balkans at the intersection of cross-cultural interactions, colonialism, and nationalism. He is particularly interested in the late Ottoman Empire, Turkey, and Syria and Lebanon during the French Mandate.