Nusrat Jahan Mim
Current affiliations
- Centre for South Asian Studies
Biography
Nusrat Jahan Mim is an Assistant Professor jointly appointed at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design and the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, where she explores the intersection of urban design, social justice, and technology with a particular focus on the politics of the built environment and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Her research critically examines how technologies, spatial practices, and policies shape the everyday experiences of marginalized communities in urban spaces, especially in South Asia. Mim teaches courses on the politics of urban design, critical computing, and participatory methods, creating interdisciplinary dialogues that connect the fields of architecture, computation, and social equity. She holds a Doctor of Design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. where she was both a Mellon Fellow and an Aga Khan Fund recipient. Her work has been published in premier venues such as ACM CHI, ACM CSCW, ACM Interactions, and Routledge. She has earned multiple accolades, including ACM SIGCHI Best Paper and Honorable Mention Awards. Mim is currently leading several collaborative projects, aiming to reimagine more inclusive and context-aware futures for urban technologies.
Select publications
Doctoral Disseration:
- Mim, Nusrat Jahan. Sacrificing Cities: Modernity, Religions, and Urban Spatial Dynamics in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Harvard University, United States -- Massachusetts, 2024. ProQuest (link)
Book Chapters:
- Mim, Nusrat Jahan, and Rahul Mehrotra. “The Ephemeral as an Instrument of Urban Design and Planning.” Informal Settlements of the Global South, 1st ed., Routledge, 2023, pp. 130–147.
- Mim, Nusrat Jahan. “Resilience at the Seams.” Resilient Urbanism, 1st ed., Edited by Gihan Karunaratne, Routledge (forthcoming).
Peer-reviewed Archived Conference Proceedings:
- Saha, Pratyasha, Nadira Nadira Nowsher, Ayien Utshob Baidya, Nusrat Jahan Mim, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, and S M Taiabul Haque. “Computing and the Stigmatized: Trust, Surveillance, and Space Politics with the Sex Workers in Bangladesh.” In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2024
- Mim, Nusrat Jahan. “Gospels of Modernity: Digital Cattle Markets, Urban Religiosity, and Secular Computing in the Global South.” In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2021.
- Mim, Nusrat Jahan and Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed. “Others’ Images: Online Social Media, Architectural Improvisations, and Spatial Marginalization in Bangladesh.” In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2020.
Journal and Magazine:
- Mim, Nusrat Jahan. " Ordinary Tents: Interconnections, Intricacies and Isolation" Marg, A Magazine of the Arts 75, no. 4 (2024): 100-107.
- Mou, Mayisha Tahsin, Md Mahmudur Rahman, and Nusrat Jahan Mim. "NonLinear Migrations and Urban Resilience." Bhúmi, The Planning Research Journal Vol.10, Issue.01:6-15, June 2023.
- Mim, Nusrat Jahan. "Religion at the Margins: Resistance to Secular Humanitarianism at the Rohingya Refugee Camps in Bangladesh." Religions 11, no. 8 , 2022.
- Nusrat Jahan Mim and Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed. "Faith, Modernity, and Urban Computing." ACM Interactions, 2022.
- Safir, Abdullah, Nusrat Jahan Mim, S.Haque, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed. "Designing with the Internally Displaced Slum Dwellers in Bangladesh." ACM Interactions, 2021.
- Ames, Morgan G., Silvia Lindtner, Shaowen Bardzell, Jeffrey Bardzell, Lilly Nguyen, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Nusrat Jahan Mim, Steven J. Jackson, and Paul Dourish. "Making or Making Do? Challenging the Mythologies of Making and Hacking." Journal of Peer Production, no. 12, 2018.
- Mim, Nusrat Jahan, "Subaltern Virtuality: Virtual Hegemony and Domestic Architecture in Postcolonial World" (2018). Architecture Senior Theses. 431. (Citation for Excellence).
- Ghafur, Shayer, Labib Hossain, Samia Sharmin, and Nusrat Jahan Mim. "Prospect of an Ecosophic Project for Gram-Bangla’s Transformation in an Emerging Urban: Reflections on Compact Townships." Forest 12, no. 9.02: 9-84, 2015.
Awards & recognition
- Aga Khan Endowment Fund, Harvard University, 2022-23, 2023-24.
- ACM SIGCHI Best Paper Award 2024.
- Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative Fellowship 2022-2023.
- GSA Fellowship, The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University, 2022-23.
- Harvard GSD DDes Summer Research Grant, Harvard University, 2020, 2021, 2022.
- ACM SIGCHI Best Paper Honorable Mention Awards 2021.
- Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute Summer Research Grant, Harvard University, 2021.
- ACM SIGCHI Best Paper Honorable Mention Awards 2020
- HDR Architecture Graduate Student Scholarship, 2020.
- MPower Global Citizen Scholarship, Grand Prize Winner, 2019 • Citation for Excellence in M.Arch Thesis, Syracuse Architecture, NY, USA, 2019.
- AIA Henry Adams Medal (for highest academic rank) Syracuse University M.Arch Program, 2019 • International Laka Competition 2018: Architecture that reacts, Main Prize Winner.
- King+King Comprehensive Design Studio Award, Syracuse University, 2018.
- Design TA Fellowship, Syracuse University, (highest CGPA holder in Design Studios) 2018.
- Creative Work and Research Grant, Syracuse Architecture, Syracuse University, 2016-2018.
- Archiprix (Madrid, 2015) participants’ favorite Best Graduation Project among graduation work from about 300 universities around the world.
- International Lafarge-Holcim Award, 2014 for sustainable construction, 2nd Prize in the Next Generation Category, Asia Pacific.
- Best Undergraduate Thesis Award (Architect Shaiful Azam Khan Memorial Award), Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, 2013.
- magna cum laude, Dept of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, 2013.
- National Design Competition Champion, Khulna University, Bangladesh, 2012.
- Award of Academic Excellence (Shorfuddin Scholarship), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, 2011.
- ARCASIA International Student Design Competition, 3rd Prize, Lahore, Pakistan, 2010.
- Merit Scholarship, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.