Faten Kikano

Faten Kikano is a researcher and a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at Université de Montréal. She is affiliated with OEuvre Durable, a multi-university research group focused on vulnerability, resilience, and sustainable reconstruction. Following 20 years of experience as a practitioner in architecture and design and as an instructor in the most prestigious universities in Lebanon, she oriented her career towards research in refugee spaces. Her study explores the impact...See more

Faten Kikano is a researcher and a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at Université de Montréal. She is affiliated with OEuvre Durable, a multi-university research group focused on vulnerability, resilience, and sustainable reconstruction. Following 20 years of experience as a practitioner in architecture and design and as an instructor in the most prestigious universities in Lebanon, she oriented her career towards research in refugee spaces. Her study explores the impact of refugees' institutional, economic and social conditions on the process of space appropriation in refugee spaces-urban accommodations, informal encampment, and organized camps. Her research bridges the gap between misrepresentations of refugee spaces as temporary solutions and the protracted conditions of most refugee situations. Findings of her research enable her to set a practical framework for governments and institutions with policies aiming at the implementation of appropriate living environments for refugees and sustainable solutions in host countries. Her project focuses on the case of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Her study is funded by the prestigious Armand Bombardier scholarship of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). She has participated in several international academic, humanitarian, and artistic activities and published a number of scholarly articles and book chapters related to forced migration. See less