فينوس سليمان عاكف عبدالقادر زنكنه

الجامعة التكنولوجية

Venus.S.Akef@uotechnology.edu.iq

Dr. Venus Suleiman Akef is an awards-winning architect and scholar; a Postdoctoral Weinberg Fellow in architectural history and preservation - The Italian Academy, Columbia University, NY, USA, 2021-2022. She received her PhD in Architecture in 2019 in addition to a graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation in 2018, both from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the founder and director of the Historic Preservation Technology Unit at the University of Technology in Baghdad, Iraq. The coordinator and in charge of the University of Technology membership at the United Nations Academic Impact UNAI. Dr. Akef is the first Iraqi architect and scholar to speak at the General Assembly of the United Nations, introducing the concept of her PhD dissertation, Architecture for Positive Peace: The Role of Architecture in the Process of rebuilding Peace within conflict and postwar contexts. She is also the winner of the Many Languages One World (MLOW) international competition, organized by ELS Educational Services, Inc., and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), 2016. In 2020, She worked as the research assistant at the Iraq Hub for the international project led by the University of Leeds, United Kingdom: (Re) Contextualizing Contested Heritage: Building Capacity & Designing Participatory Approaches to Preserve Cultural Heritage by the Youth (United Kingdom, Iraq- Lebanon- Kosovo), 2020. She is the first female winner of Tamayouz, the Excellence Award in Architecture, for the Rising Star Category of Women in Architecture and Construction, 2014. She is the first female winner of the Architect Prize of the Arab World, organized by the Arab League in 2009. Dr. Akef has participated in many distinguished national and international conferences and journals with contributions at different capacities (researcher, speaker, member of scientific committee, chairing sessions, and editorial board) such as – but not limited to: Barcelona – Urban Futures – Cultural Pasts (Sustainable Cities, Cultures & Crafts), 2024; The 16th International Conference on the Developments in eSystems Engineering, 2023; TEDx Baghdad 2021, STEPS (Science, Technology, Engineering, Post Graduate Students) 2020, The 2017 National Humanities Conference by National Humanities Alliance (NHA) co-hosted with the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Boston, Massachusetts, USA; and the Eighth Annual Conference, Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA). Washington, D.C., USA.