Dr Huda Tayob will be joining the GSA as History & Theory Programme Convener in 2019. She is currently a Teaching Fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. She received a Master’s degree in Architecture (with distinction) from the University of Cape Town and subsequently worked in architectural practices prior to starting her PhD. Her PhD draws on postcolonial theories and subaltern studies literature to research the ‘opaque architectures’ of pan-African markets in Cape Town. Her current research looks at the entanglement of these sites with other related spaces on the continent and beyond. Her wider academic interests include a focus on minor and subaltern architectures, the politics of invisibility in space, and the potential of literature to respond to archival silences in architectural research. She has been awarded a Scott Opler Emerging Scholar Fellowship for the 2019 Society of Architectural Historians 72nd Annual Conference and is the recipient of a Commendation from the RIBA President’s Medal Research Award committee. HTD will focus on methods, fields and archives- the key material of architectural history and theory. It questions and interrogates how and where architectural knowledge is produced and re-produced. The starting point will be a series of archaeological sites. Central to the course is thinking through the potential of new and wider architectural archives of particular spaces, sites and their histories, while simultaneously working through older archives in new ways.

Anna Abengowe will be joining the GSA as Deputy Director of School in 2019. She holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from Princeton University and prior to joining the GSA, was principal of her own practice, Worldwide Design Infrastructure, based in New York. She has an impressive track record of project procurement, architectural design, space planning and project management, and has worked for a number of high-profile firms in the USA, Africa and Europe over the past thirty years. She was a juror on the inaugural Africa Architecture Awards in 2017. She states, ‘we need new solutions to address current and future challenges facing the African continent. In privileging imagination, critical thinking, problem-solving and rigorous research and practice, the GSA is in a unique position to address these very real problems.’

A recent graduate of the GSA’s Master’s programme and recipient of the GSA’s RIBA President’s Medal Award Nomination 2018, Steffen Fischer will join the GSA’s Professional Services team in 2019. He has worked in practice (BOOM Architects) as well as the non-profit sector (GIfA) over the past five years and will be the GSA’s ‘go-to’ person for all administrative enquiries, including student affairs. Steffen’s research interests include questions of identity, belonging, diaspora and migration and his work has been described by Professor Yeoryia Manolopoulou, External Examiner, as ‘sublime.’ He will continue to support the Department of Architecture (DoA) through his social media and administration activities, providing a much-needed bridge between the two departments. Although he will be taking some time off from academic pursuits, he will also be joining the GSA’s growing network of permanent critics.