Professor Samer Akkach

Professor

School of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

My Research
Publications
Grants and Funding
Teaching
Supervision
Contact

Research Interests

Samer joined the University of Adelaide in 1993. He moved from Sydney where he received his Master of Architectural Design from the University of New South Wales in 1985, and his PhD from the University of Sydney in 1992.

Samer is an established scholar in two fields of study: architectural history and theory and Islamic studies. He has a cross-cultural background, interdisciplinary research interests, and a unique mix of expertise. The spectrum of his expertise include:

History and theory of architecture and landscape in general, and of Islamic art, architecture and landscape in particular.
Intellectual history of the Arab-Islamic and Ottoman traditions in the early modern period (16th - 19th centuries), with a special focus on the Enlightenment and transitions into modernity in both the European and the Arab-Ottoman worlds.
Socio-urban history of Middle Eastern cities in general, and Damascus in particular, during the early modern period, with special focus on the rise of urban secularism.
Islamic cosmology (pre- and post-Copernican traditions), philosophy (pre- and early modern), and mysticism (pre- and early modern).
History of Arab-Islamic science in the post-copernican period.

Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture (CAMEA)

Samer is Founding Director of the Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture (CAMEA), which was founded in 1997. CAMEA's establishment coincided with major shifts in peoples’ attitudes towards the built environment caused by unsettling changes in three areas: environment, technology, and culture.

Awareness of the long-term environmental consequences of modern urbanisation and industrialisation has highlighted the urgent need for new approaches to a sustainable future;
Advanced communication technologies have called for new ways of perceiving and dealing with reality; and
Intense cross-cultural interactions have generated a strong demand for broader and more culture-sensitive modes of architectural thinking.

CAMEA was founded to address the demand for new cross-cultural understanding of architecture in the context of these major global shifts. Despite the growing recognition of the importance of understanding cultural diversity, the foundations of most conventional approaches to the study of the constructed environments remain firmly seated in the European tradition. One of CAMEA’s long-term goals is to address the problems of Eurocentrism by opening up new horizons of thinking about our modern and pre-modern architecture, landscape, and urbanity. CAMEA's publications include:

S. Akkach et al (eds), Self, Place, and Imagination: Cross-Cultural Thinking in Architecture (Adelaide: CAMEA, 1999, 2nd printing 2000).

S. Akkach (ed.), De-Placing Difference: Architecture, Culture and Imaginative Geography (Adelaide: CAMEA, 2002, 2nd printing 2006).

P. Scriver (ed.), The Scaffolding of Empire (Adelaide: CAMEA, 2007).

CAMEA Fifth International Conference, July 20-23, 2016

'Ilm: Science, Religion, and Art in Islam

http://ilm-in-islam.org/

Journals

Year	Citation
2021	Akkach, S. (2021). Neo-eurocentrism and science: implications for the historiography of islamic art and architecture. International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 10(1), 203-215. DOI Scopus4 WoS1
2015	Akkach, S. (2015). The Eye of Reflection: Al-Nābulusī’s Spatial Interpretation of Ibn ‘Arabī’s Tomb. Muqarnas: an annual on the visual culture of the Islamic world, 32(1), 79-95. DOI
2012	Akkach, S. (2012). The wine of babel: landscape, gender and poetry in early modern Damascus. Lonaard Magazine, 7(2), 76-90.
2010	Akkach, S. (2010). Leisure gardens, secular habits: The culture of recreation in Ottoman Damascus. Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi. Mimarlik Fakultesi. Dergisi, 27(1), 67-80. DOI Scopus8 WoS4
2007	Akkach, S. (2007). Adrian Snodgrass and Richard Coyne, Interpretations in Architecture: design as a way of thinking. Architectural Theory Review, 12(2), 217-219. DOI
2007	Akkach, S. (2007). The spatiality of the cross in Islamic architecture and landscape. TAASA Review, 16(1), 4-6.
2007	Akkach, S. (2007). The Wine of Babel: landscape, gender and poetry in early modern Damascus. Literature and Aesthetics, 17(1), 107-124.
2005	Akkach, S. (2005). The poetics of concealment: Al-Nabulusi's encounter with the Dome of the Rock. Muqarnas, 22(1), 110-127. DOI Scopus15
2003	Akkach, S. (2003). The 'wholly other': on the spatiality of the holy in Islam. Architectural Theory Review, 8(2), 39-56.
2003	Akkach, S. (2003). Design and the Question of Eurocentricity. Design Philosophy Papers, 1(6), 1-12.
2002	Akkach, S. (2002). Religious mapping and the spatiality of difference. Thresholds (Cambridge), 25, 68-75.
2001	Akkach, S. (2001). Imaginary geography and the land of (virtual) reality: Reflections on the cosmology of cyberspace. Architectural Theory Review, 6(1), 16-32. DOI
2000	Akkach, S. (2000). The burden of difference: rethinking the role of culture in architectural education. Architectural Theory Review, 5(1), 61-64. DOI
1999	Akkach, S. (1999). Tanzir al-'Amara wa Tajribat al-Hayat al-Yawmiyya. Al-Mustagbal Al-Arabi, 22(248), 92-112.
1999	Akkach, S. (1999). Al-'Anara al-'Arabiyya al-Mu'asira 'ala Masharif al-Qarn al-Jadid. Al-Mustagbal Al-'Arabi, 22(248), 88-92.
1998	Akkach, S. (1998). Lu'bat al-Wujud wa Mawaqi ' al-Ashya. Al-Mustqbal Al-Arabi, 236, 125-145.
1997	Akkach, S. (1997). Al-Bahth 'an Dhat dhat Ma'na: Ishkaliyyat Al-Hawiyya fi Al-Amarah. Arab Future, 222, 34-47.
1997	Akkach, S. (1997). Ibn 'Arabi's Cosmogony and the Sufi concept of space and time. Disputatio : An International Transdisciplinary Journal of the Late Middle Ages, 2(Construction of time in the Late Middle Ages), 115-142.
1997	Akkach, S. (1997). The world of imagination in Ibn 'Arabi's ontology. British Journal for Middle Eastern Studies, 24(1), 97-113.
1996	Akkach, S. (1996). Review of Dialogue on the Structure of Art and Architecture. Arab Future, 213, 139-147.
1995	Akkach, S. (1995). In the image of the cosmos: Order and symbolism in traditional Islamic architecture (Part 2). Islamic Quarterly, xxxix(2), 90-106.
1995	Akkach, S. (1995). Qadaya Mi'mariyyah Mu'asirah: Badihiyyat Matruhah Lil-Tasa'ul. Arab Future, 18(197), 28-37.
1995	Akkach, S. (1995). In the image of the cosmos: Order and symbolism in traditional Islamic architecture (Part 1). Islamic Quarterly, xxxix(1), 5-17.
1992	Billings, K., & Akkach, S. (1992). A study of ideologies and methods in contemporary architectural design teaching: part 1: ideology. Design Studies, 13(4), 431-450. DOI Scopus10

Books

Year	Citation
2024	Akkach, S., & Powell, J. (2024). Numinous Fields, Perceiving the Sacred in Nature, Landscape, and Art. Brill. DOI
2021	Akkach, S. (Ed.) (2021). Naẓar: Vision, Belief, and Perception in Islamic Cultures (Vol. 191). Leiden: Brill.
2021	Akkach, S. (Ed.) (2021). Naẓar: Vision, Belief, and Perception in Islamic Cultures (Vol. 191). Leiden: Brill.
2019	Akkach, S. (Ed.) (2019). ʿIlm: Science, religion, and art in Islam. Adelaide: Adelaide University Press. DOI
2017	Akkach, S. (2017). Marsad Istanbul: Hadm al-Rasd wa Rasd al-Hadm. Tatawwur Thaqafat al-ulum fi al-Islam ba'd Copernicus. Beirut: Arab Centre for Research and Policy Study.
2015	Akkach, S. (2015). Damascene Diaries: A Reading of the Cultural History of Ottoman Damascus in the 18th Century (1 ed.). Beirut: Bissan.
2012	Akkach, S. (2012). Intimate invocations: Al-Ghazzi's biography of Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641-1731) (Vol. 92). Netherlands: Brill. DOI
2010	Akkach, S. (2010). Letters of a Sufi scholar : the correspondence of ʻAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī, 1641-1731. Netherlands: Brill.
2007	Akkach, S. (2007). Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi: Islam and the Enlightenment. Oxford, England: Oneworld.
2005	Akkach, S. (2005). Cosmology and architecture in premodern Islam - An architectural reading of mystical ideas. 194 Washington Ave, Suite 305, Albany, NY, 12210-2365: State University of New York Press. Scopus64
2002	Akkach, S. (Ed.) (2002). De-placing Difference: Architecture, Culture and Imaginative Geography. Adelaide, South Australia: Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture, the University of Adelaide.
2000	Akkach, S., Fung, S., & Scriver, P. (Eds.) (2000). Self, place & imagination : cross-cultural thinking in architecture. Centre for Asian & Middle Eastern Architecture, University of Adelaide.

Book Chapters

Year	Citation
2024	Akkach, S., & Powell, J. (2024). Introduction: Being with the sacred: Towards an anthropocentric understanding. In S. Akkach, & J. Powell (Eds.), Numinous Fields: Perceiving the Sacred in Nature, Landscape, and Art (pp. 1-27). BRILL. DOI
2024	Akkach, S. (2024). Numinosity, humanity, and the landscape of desire: Re-scoping the sacred in late 17th-century Damascus. In S. Akkach, & J. Powell (Eds.), Numinous Fields: Perceiving the Sacred in Nature, Landscape, and Art (pp. 229-255). BRILL. DOI
2022	Akkach, S. (2022). Neo-Eurocentrism and science: Implications for the historiography of Islamic art and architecture. In Islamic Architecture Today and Tomorrow: (Re)Defining the Field (pp. 125-139).
2022	Akkach, S. (2022). Neo-Eurocentrism and Science: Implications for the Historiography of Islamic Art and Architecture. In M. Gharipour, & D. Coslett (Eds.), Islamic Architecture Today and Tomorrow: (Re)defining the Field (pp. 126-139). Bristol: Intellect.
2022	Akkach, S. (2022). Preface. In Unknown Book (Vol. 191, pp. IX-XII).
2021	Akkach, S. (2021). Naẓar: The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unseeable. In S. Akkach (Ed.), Naẓar:Vision, Belief, and Perception in Islamic Cultures (Vol. 191, pp. 12-32). BRILL. DOI Scopus3
2021	Akkach, S. (2021). Naẓar: The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unseeable. In S. Akkach (Ed.), Naẓar:Vision, Belief, and Perception in Islamic Cultures (Vol. 191, pp. 12-32). BRILL. DOI Scopus3
2021	Akkach, S. (2021). Veiling: Ibn al-Qaṭṭān’s Aḥkām and the Rules Concerning Seeing. In S. Akkach (Ed.), Naẓar: Vision, Belief, and Perception in Islamic Cultures (Vol. 191, pp. 148-172). Leiden: Brill. DOI
2021	Akkach, S. (2021). Veiling: Ibn al-Qaṭṭān’s Aḥkām and the Rules Concerning Seeing. In S. Akkach (Ed.), Naẓar: Vision, Belief, and Perception in Islamic Cultures (Vol. 191, pp. 148-172). Leiden: Brill. DOI
2021	Akkach, S. (2021). Aperture: Terms, Concepts, and Discourse. In S. Akkach (Ed.), Naẓar: Vision, Belief and Perception in Islamic Cultures (Vol. 191, pp. 1-11). Leiden: Brill. DOI Scopus1
2021	Akkach, S. (2021). Aperture: Terms, Concepts, and Discourse. In S. Akkach (Ed.), Naẓar: Vision, Belief and Perception in Islamic Cultures (Vol. 191, pp. 1-11). Leiden: Brill. DOI Scopus1
2019	Akkach, S. (2019). Islamic Science and Cosmology in the Post-Copernican Period: Reflections on ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī’s Views. In L. Demiri, & S. Pagani (Eds.), Early Modern Trends in Islamic Theology: ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī and his Network of Scholarship (pp. 277-298). Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck.
2019	Bartsch, K. A., & Scriver, P. (2019). The House of Stars: Astronomy and the architecture of new science in early modern Lucknow (1831-49). In S. Akkach (Ed.), 'Ilm: Science, Religion and Art in Islam (pp. 59-77). Adelaide, South Australia: University of Adelaide Press. DOI
2019	Akkach, S. (2019). Polarising 'Ilm: Science and Religion in Early Modern Islam. In S. Akkach (Ed.), 'Ilm: Science, Religion, and Art in Islam (pp. 3-18). Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.
2019	Akkach, S. (2019). Polarising 'Ilm: Science and Religion in Early Modern Islam. In S. Akkach (Ed.), 'Ilm: Science, Religion, and Art in Islam (pp. 3-18). Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.
2019	Akkach, S. (2019). Introduction. In S. Akkach (Ed.), 'Ilm: Science, Religion, and Art in Islam (pp. xvii-xxv). Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press. DOI
2019	Akkach, S. (2019). Introduction. In S. Akkach (Ed.), 'Ilm: Science, Religion, and Art in Islam (pp. xvii-xxv). Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press. DOI
2018	Akkach, S. (2018). Aural Geometry: Poetry, Music, and Architecture in the Arabic Tradition. In M. Frishkopf, & F. Spinetti (Eds.), Music, Sound and Architecture in Islam (1 ed., pp. 166-197). Texas, USA: University of Texas Press.
2015	Akkach, S. (2015). Beautiful names of God. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & E. Rowson (Eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam - Three (Vol. 4, 3 ed., pp. 54-57). Leiden, Boston: Brill.
2014	Akkach, S. (2014). Modernity and design in the Arab world: Professional identity and social responsibility. In E. Kalantidou, & T. Fry (Eds.), Design in the Borderlands (1 ed., pp. 61-75). United Kingdom: Routledge. DOI Scopus5
2012	Akkach, S. (2012). 'Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & E. Rowson (Eds.), THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM - THREE (Vol. 1, 3 ed., pp. 20-28). Leiden, Boston: Brill.
2011	Akkach, S. (2011). The Presence of absence: sacred design now (2). In A. Willis (Ed.), Design Philosophy Papers - Collection Six (1 ed., pp. 63-70). Australia: Team D/E/S Publications.
2005	Akkach, S. (2005). Design and the Question of Eurocentricity: a Personal Reflection. In Design Philosophy Papers: Collection Two (pp. 87-91). Leiden, Boston: Team D/E/S Publications.
2002	Akkach, S. (2002). On Culture. In De-placing difference: architecture, culture and imaginative geography (pp. 183-189). Adelaide, South Australia: Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture, the University of Adelaide.
2002	Akkach, S. (2002). Useful obsessions: Architecture as a cultural critique. In A. Salama, W. O'Reilly, & K. Noschis (Eds.), Architectural Education Today - Cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 31-41). Lausanne: Comportements.

Conference Papers

Year	Citation
2002	Akkach, S. (2002). Mapping difference: On the Islamic concept of fada'il. In Samer Akkach (Ed.), De-placing Difference - Architecture, Culture and Imaginative Geography (pp. 9-21). Adelaide, Australia: Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture.
2000	Akkach, S. (2000). Framing the holy: Islamic Jerusalem in history and travel memoirs. In M. Gusheh (Ed.), Double Frames, Proceedings of the First International Symposium of the Centre for Asian Environments (pp. 185-205). Sydney, Australia: The Centre for Asian Environments, The University of New South Wales.

Conference Items

Year	Citation
2015	Akkach, S. (2015). Neo-Eurocentricity and History of Islamic Science. Poster session presented at the meeting of Rethinking Intellectual History 2015. University of Sydney, Australia.
2015	Akkach, S. (2015). The eye of reflection: Al-Nabulusi's spatial interpretation of Ibn 'Arabi's tomb. Poster session presented at the meeting of Muqarnas. Max Planck Inst, Kunsthistorisches Inst Florenz, Florence, ITALY: BRILL. DOI Scopus7 WoS4
2014	Akkach, S. (2014). Islamic Cosmology in the Post-Copernican Period: Reflections on al-Nābulusī’s Views. Poster session presented at the meeting of Early Modern Trends in Islamic Theology: 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi and his Network of Scholarship. Centre for Islamic Theology, University of Tubingen, Germany.
2014	Akkach, S. (2014). Neo-Eurocentricity and Islamic Intellectual History in the Post-Copernican Period. Poster session presented at the meeting of The Islamic World in the 18th Century: Before Colonialism. The NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, UAE.
2013	Akkach, S. (2013). Damascene Diaries: Urban Secularity and Religious Tolerance. Poster session presented at the meeting of Australia and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies ANZAMEMS - Ninth Biennial Conference. Australia: Monash University.

Theses

Year Citation

2017 Powell, J. F. (2017). The Garden as Art: A New Space for the Garden in Contemporary Aesthetics. (PhD Thesis, University of Adelaide).

Year	Citation
2017	Powell, J. F. (2017). The Garden as Art: A New Space for the Garden in Contemporary Aesthetics. (PhD Thesis, University of Adelaide).

Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grants

2012-15: Islam and the Ethos of Science in the Post-Copernican Period

(Sole Chief Investigator, recieved ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award (DORA)).

2009-11: Islam and Secular Urban Culture in Early Modern Middle East

(Sole Chief Investigator)

2006-09: Islam, Modernity and the Enlightenment: A New Perspective

(Sole Chief Investigator)

Awards and Achievements

2015-2016 Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies' Prize for Research in Humanities and Social Science

2012-15 Australian Research Council's Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award (DORA).

2010-11 Visiting Professorship, Arab International University, Damascus.

2010 Honorary Fellowship, Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi’s Society, Oxford and Berkeley.

2010 Australian Institute of Architects' Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize http://www.architecture.com.au/i-cms?page=13970

2009 Hamad bin Khalifa fellowship for Islamic Art.

2003 University of Adelaide’s Stephen Cole the Elder prize for excellence in teaching.

2002 Visiting Research Fellowship at MIT, The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture.

2001 Society of Architectural Historians of North America’s Fellowship.

Teaching

Representation II, Sem. 2
Final Project, Sem. 2

Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Date	Role	Research Topic	Program	Degree Type	Student Load	Student Name
2022	Principal Supervisor	Aspects of the spiritual in modern Australian art	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Tracey Dianne Lock
2021	Principal Supervisor	Aesthetics, Perception and Vision in Islamic Cultures: Science, Religion, and the Arts	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Ellen Jean Philpott

Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Date	Role	Research Topic	Program	Degree Type	Student Load	Student Name
2016 - 2021	Principal Supervisor	Making Art in Early Modern Java (16th-19th c.): A New Reading	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Mr James Bennett
2015 - 2018	Principal Supervisor	Emotions in Place: The Creation of the Suburban 'Other' in Early Modern London	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Dr Jade Michelle Riddle
2015 - 2020	Principal Supervisor	Woven Pleasure: Continuity and Change in Persian Carpet Making During the Safavid Period	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Mansoureh Rajabitanha
2014 - 2019	Principal Supervisor	Imperial Hunting Grounds: A New Reading of Mughal Cultural History	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Shaha Altaf Parpia
2014 - 2017	Principal Supervisor	The Garden as Art: A New Space for the Garden in Contemporary Aesthetics	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr John Francis Powell
2013 - 2016	Principal Supervisor	The Rise of Modern Urbanity (tamaddun) in the Arab World Education, Journalism, and Enlightenment	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Mrs Kinda Alsamara
2013 - 2018	Principal Supervisor	Botanic and Poetic Landscapes: A Reading of Two Persian Texts on Early Safavid Gardens	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mrs Zahra Ranjbari
2012 - 2012	Principal Supervisor	Gardens of Damascus: Landscape and the Culture of Recreation in the Early Modern Period	Master of Landscape Architecture	Master	Full Time	Miss Georgina Hafteh
2007 - 2014	Principal Supervisor	BODY, SOUL, AND ARCHITECTURE A Study of the Premodern Islamic and Western Traditions	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Mr Faris Akbar Hajamaideen
2004 - 2013	Principal Supervisor	Maps and Meanings: Urban Cartography and Urban Design	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Julie Nichols
2003 - 2008	Co-Supervisor	'Indian Architecture' and the Production of a Postcolonial Discourse: A Study of Architecture + Design (1984-1992)	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Shaji Kannanchira Panicker
2002 - 2009	Principal Supervisor	Architecture and the Politics of Identity in Indonesia A Study of the Cultural History of Aceh	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Miss Izziah Hasan
1997 - 2004	Principal Supervisor	Charters and the Ethics of Conservation A Cross-Cultural Perspective	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Mr Barry Rowney

Position: Professor
Phone: 83135832
Email: samer.akkach@adelaide.edu.au
Fax: 83134377
Campus: North Terrace
Building: Horace Lamb, floor 4
Org Unit: Architecture and Landscape Architecture