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Dr. Taher’s research explores feminist object practices in American dwelling spaces. Everyday vernacular objects play a primary role in her research, which investigates cultural landscapes of new immigrants through inquiries into displacement, gender, and race. As an interdisciplinary researcher and designer in the built environment, Dr. Taher explores human-centered design principles through ethnographic studies, visiting, documenting, and analyzing the built environment while listening to users' voices to create a holistic experience within a larger social, cultural, historical, and ecological landscape. Arriving at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in Fall 2024 as a tenure-track faculty member, Dr. Taher will teach design studios and offer courses focused on human-centered design principles through the lens of social design. Her academic background lies at the intersection of architecture and urban design, with an upcoming book project examining the world-making of first-generation Bangladeshi immigrant women in New York, particularly through their dwellings and networks of residential environments. She also investigates how research participants' physical and sensory interactions reconstruct spatial memories related to everyday objects and experiences of transnational displacement. Additionally, her research interests extend to material and spatial histories of South Asia.
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