• 2023 +.  With SETEC, MORES, Mona Khechen & Habib Debs: UN-Habitat’s Resilient Water Solutions against Climate Change, Strategic Planning for the Zahle district, Lebanon.

• 2022.  With the American University of Beirut: Developing a new agricultural code for KSA.

• 2022.  With the University of St. Gallen: Mapping public policy institutions in the Arab Region. 

• 2021.  With the Beirut Urban Lab and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Boston: Lebanon’s Land and Housing Policy Debates. 

• 2021.  With LUGARIT: Housing, land, and property outputs communication.  Link >

• 2021.  With the World Bank Group in Beirut: The Lebanon Public Expenditure. Fiscal Policy Review and Recommendations.  

Serves as a Co-Organizer for the Seminar Series: Cities are Back in Town.  Responsibilities include: 

• Planning and organizing twelve seminars per year

• Organizing a half-day research workshop 

• Managing communications 

Lectured on Urban Sociology – MA level.  Responsibilities included: 

• Lecturing a thematic group on urban mobility 

• Evaluating and grading research papers

Teaching Assistant in Urban History courses – MA level.  Responsibilities included: 

• Assisting lectures and communicating with students

• Preparing course bibliography

• Evaluating and grading research papers

• Organizing student site visits

• Conducting research within the “Land, Natural Resources and Climate Change in the Arab Region” project with the Global Land Network Tool at UN-Habitat

• Assisting to the elaboration of the Strategic Master Plans for four Cazas in South Lebanon

• Contributing to discussions with the research team on various policy papers and positions published by the center

• Assisting in consultancy work on urban legal framework for urban regeneration in Afghanistan

• Working on the elaboration of the Master plan of the city of Zahle, Lebanon

• Preparing training material for mayors on planning legal tools (master plans, SEA, EIA) as part of a collaboration with UNDP

• Working on the update of the National Physical Master Plan for the Lebanese Territories taking into consideration the impact of the Syrian crisis

• Conducting research on Taif city as part of the new master plan of Taif, KSA

• Working on the elaboration of the Master plan of Wastani neighborhood in Saida, Lebanon

• Working on the urban design project of Shrashif neighborhood in Makka, KSA

• Updating detailed drawings for the CHUD Urban Design project in Tripoli, Lebanon

• Working on detailed drawings for various architectural projects

Part-time Researcher at the Department of Landscape Design & Ecosystem Management.  Responsibilities included: 

• Conducting research on integrated energy planning and renewable energy 

• Ensuring administrative and financial management of an EU grant project

• Preparing and organizing the final conference of the project

• Conducting literature review on conventional zoning/planning tools

• Conducting literature review on Ecological Landscape Associations

• Conducting literature review on Payment for Ecosystem Services

Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Department of Architecture and Design.  Responsibilities included assisting in teaching three courses within the undergraduate program of Architecture: Illegal Cities, Urbanism, and Architectural Drawing Details. 

Conducting field surveys & drafting the diagnosis report for the Master plan of Hammana, Baabda, Lebanon.

Part-time Architect and Urban Planner.  Responsibilities included: 

• Developing schemes and maps for the ‘Plan Vert de Beyrouth’ project

• Conducting field work in Beirut for the projects of ‘Liaison Douce’ and ‘Plan Vert de Beyrouth’

• Working on detailed drawings for various architectural projects

• Samaha, P. (Forthcoming). When land became property in Lebanon. The transformation of land codes since 1858 and its implications on planning and public domains. Planning Perspectives.

• Samaha, P. (2024). بحثًا عن العام في لبنان بين الأرض وملكيّتها (4): متروك، لمن؟ [Searching for the public, between land and its ownership. Part 4: Matrouk lands, to whom?]. Legal Agenda, Beirut. (Arabic). 

• Samaha, P. (2024). [Review of the book Sunni City. Tripoli from Islamist Utopia to the Lebanese Revolution, By T. Gade], Mondes arabes, 5(1), 203–209.

• Samaha, P. (2024). بحثًا عن العام في لبنان بين الأرض وملكيّتها (3):"التحديد والتحرير" وخرائط المساحة، غاية أم وسيلة؟ [Searching for the public, between land and its ownership. Part 3: Demarcation, Delineation and the Cadastre, a Means or an End?]. Legal Agenda, Beirut. (Arabic).  Link >

• Samaha, P. (2024). الفرنسيين، أساسات هشّة بحثًا عن العام في لبنان بين الأرض وملكيّتها (2): إنجازات. [Searching for the public in Lebanon, between land and its ownership (2): The French endeavors as weak foundations]. Legal Agenda, Beirut. (Arabic).  Link >

• Samaha, P. (2023). بحثًا عن العام في لبنان بين الأرض وملكيّتها (1): قانون الأراضي العثماني. [Searching for the public in Lebanon, between land and its ownership (1): The Ottoman Land Code of 1858]. Legal Agenda, Beirut. (Arabic).  Link >

• Samaha, P. (2023). بحثاً عن العام الذي ما يزال حيّاً. [In search of a public that still lives]. Legal Agenda, Beirut. (Arabic).  Link >

• Khechen, M. & Samaha, P. (2022). Land, natural resources and climate change in the Arab Region: tenure security issues and challenges. Final study report, LCPS & Global Land Tool Network/UN-Habitat.  Link >

• Samaha, P. (2022). Land as a Cash Machine. The case of Lebanon. Research Project on Land Governance in the Arab Region, Global Land Tool Network/UN-Habitat.  Link >

• Samaha, P. (2021). The seemingly (un)planned urbanization in Chouf: who is the planner? Peace Building News Supplement, Issue 27. UNDP.  Link >

• Samaha, P., & Mohtar, A. (2020). Decoding an urban myth: An inquiry into the Van line 4 system in Beirut, Lebanon. Journal of Transport Geography, 85, 102743.  Link >

• Samaha, P. (2017). Life in a Street: How Informal Mechanisms Govern Scarce Public Spaces in Nabaa, Beirut. Jadaliyya, Cities Page.   Link >

• Dagher & Samaha (2016). Rethinking shared space: the case of Nabaa, Bourj Hammoud. IFI, AUB.  Link >

• Mohtar, A., & Samaha, P. (2016). Decoding an Urban Myth: An Inquiry into the Socioeconomics of Van Number 4 in Beirut. Jadaliyya, Cities Page.  Link >

• Samaha, P. (2015). “Socio-Spatial Analysis of Public Spaces in Nabaa”, In: Practicing the Public, Fawaz, M. Gharbieh, A., & Public Works (Eds.). Beirut: As-Safir Newspaper, October 13, p. 28. (Arabic).  Link >

• Samaha, P. (2023). Land tenure, climate change and migration in Zahle, Lebanon. Integrating Tenure Security into Land Restoration Initiatives – Africa and Arab Region, UNCCD-FAO Webinars on Land Tenure for All Stakeholders.

• Samaha, P. (2023). The Multiple Public(s) of Lebanon: Space, Tensions, and Representations. The Urban and the Political seminar series, the French Institute for Anatolian Studies (IFEA) with the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO), Beirut. 

• Samaha, P. & Muwatinun wa Muwatinat fi Dawla – Citizens in a State (Eds.). (2022). الدولة، بين ملكية أفراد وقضايا مجتمع. [The State, between private property and society’s challenges]. Seminar proceedings on land property in the region. Beirut. (Arabic).  Link >

• Samaha, P. (2022). Retour du Liban. Candidater aux législatives en faisant du terrain. Séminaire Retour du terrain, CERI Sciences Po, Paris.

• Samaha, P. (2021). Land as a cash machine. The case of Lebanon. Séminaire Villes et Crises au Liban, CERI Sciences Po, Paris. 

• Samaha, P. (2021). En quête du public dans un Etat privatisé. Le cas du Liban. 8ème Colloque Annuel, Cercle des Chercheurs sur le Moyen-Orient, Paris.

• Samaha, P. (2021). A palimpsest of laws: the legacies of Ottoman and French land management in Lebanon. GLSA Annual Conference, McGill University, Montreal.

• Samaha, P. (2021). Public Property: the confiscated eminent domain in Lebanon. Seminar, Institut Français du Proche Orient, Beirut.

• Samaha, P. (2021). Rangelands and Pastoral Lands in the Arab Region: Let the Pastoralists Tell their Stories. Roundtable Discussion, Second Arab Land Conference, UN-Habitat, Cairo.

• Samaha, P. (2020). The play is over. Al Akhbar Newspaper, 18 August 2020. (Arabic).  Link >

• Samaha, P. [YouTube]. (2019). InforNation WebTV Program [Video Files]. Muwatinun wa Muwatinat fi Dawla.   Link >

• Abunnasr, Y., & Samaha, P. & Darazi, M. (Eds.). (2018). Integrated Energy and Education in Mediterranean Universities. ENEPLAN Project Final Conference Proceedings. Beirut: Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management, American University of Beirut.

• Samaha, P. (2018). Writing an Urban Design Thesis: Lessons Learned from the Public Spaces of Nabaa, Bourj Hammoud. Lecture, Lebanese University, Beirut.

• Samaha, P. (2018). Informal Streetscapes: Mechanisms of Space Reallocation and Conflict Resolution – Nabaa, Bourj Hammoud. Presentation, City Street Conference 3, Notre Dame University, Beirut.

• Samaha, P., & Mohtar, A. (2017). Decoding an Urban Myth: Effective Mobility through a Negotiated Use of Corruption and Sectarianism, the case of Van Line 4 in Beirut. Presentation, Royal Geographic Society, London. 

• Samaha, P. (2016). Le Transport Public comme Mode de Vie: le van #4 à Beyrouth. Presentation, Institut Français du Proche Orient, Beirut.

• Samaha, P. (2016). Public Transport as a Lifestyle: the case of van #4 in Beirut. Presentation, Bus Map Photo Action, Beirut.

• SAFAR Doctoral Scholarship (2020-2023), Institut Français du Proche-Orient & Campus France 

• Research Grant (2021), the Research Innovation Fund on Land Governance, HBRC/GLTN/UN-Habitat/BMZ

• Arab Council for Social Sciences Travel Grant (2017), to present research at the Royal Geographic Society annual conference in London 

• Research Grant (2016), Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, Social Justice and Development Policy in the Arab World Program at the American University of Beirut

• Graduate students’ speaker (2015), 146th commencement ceremony at the American University of Beirut, Published in: Al-Fanar Media | Daily Star | McClatchy.  Link > 

• Graduate Research Assistantship (2013-2015), Master of Urban Design Program at the American University of Beirut