Nezar AlSayyad is a professor emeritus of architecture, planning, urban design and urban history, and former chair of UC Berkeley’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (1996-2014). He is an expert on Egypt and the urban histories and traditions of the Arab world, and writes about culture, politics and the built environment. AlSayyad has authored and edited several books on housing, identity, tradition, urbanism, urban design, urban history, urban informality, tourism and the virtual world. He has also produced and directed two public television documentaries: “Virtual Cairo” and “At Home with Mother Earth.” His most recent book is Cairo: Histories of a City, (Harvard University Press, 2011). In 1988, AlSayyad cofounded the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments. Today he serves as president of the association and editor of its highly acclaimed peer-reviewed journal, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review.