Dr. Shahd Seethaler-Wari, 2016-2019

Shahd Seethaler-Wari was a Post-doctoral Researcher at the Department of Social and Cultural Diversity. Her focus in the “Asylum-seekers’ Needs and Aspirations” project was the spatial needs of asylum-seekers in the refugee accommodations in Lower-Saxony, and the role of architecture and infrastructure of accommodation facilities in the daily lives and future trajectories of asylum-seekers. Dr. Seethaler-Wari studied urban planning and urban management at TU Berlin, and architecture at Birzeit University in Palestine. Her Ph.D. research focused on the perception and use of public space by Palestinian immigrants and refugees in Berlin. From 2013 until 2015, she was a part-time Lecturer at HTW in Berlin, teaching “Regional Policies in Less Developed Countries” in the framework of the International and Development Economics Master’s program (MIDE). Before her post-graduate studies in Germany, she worked as a Senior Project Coordinator at the International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC) in Jerusalem focusing on urban rights, and alternative and participatory planning.

Research projects

• Understanding the public-private spectrum of space in asylum-seekers’ accommodation facilities (completed)
• Between accommodation and integration: comparing institutional arrangements for asylum-seekers (with Susanne Becker, Simona Pagano, Miriam Schader and Steven Vertovec)
• Diversity of asylum seekers’ needs and aspirations (completed) (with Susanne Becker, Annett Fleischer, Miriam Schader, Steven Vertovec)
• The challenges of migration, integration, and exclusion (WiMi - Wissenschaftsinitiative Migration und Integration) (with Susanne Becker, Annett Fleischer, Simona Pagano, Miriam Schader, Steven Vertovec and Magdalena Suerbaum)