Labib Hossain

Labib Hossain is a PhD candidate in the History of Architecture and Urban Development program at Cornell University. His dissertation explores the discourse of “contained waters” in the making of “dry” and modern Dhaka and how it emerged through a series of colonial practices, interventions, and interactions. Hossain’s other research interests include land-water separation in colonial Bengal, archival practices in the dynamic landscape, and representation of water in South Asia. Before his time at Cornell, Hossain graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Hossain has taught seminar courses at the Cornell University and lectured at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. His essays and articles have appeared in different journals, magazines, blogs and in newspapers including the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH). He recently contributed a book chapter in the volume “Rethinking Global Modernism: Architectural Historiography and the Postcolonial” edited by Vikramaditya Prakash, Maristella Casciato, and Daniel E. Coslett.

• “Unlearning Colonial Dryness in Dhaka” in Thaisa Way and David Karmon, ed., “Rethinking the Urban Landscape,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 81.3, (September 2022): 278-282.
• “Representing Landscape, Mediating Wetness: Louis Kahn at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar (East Pakistan/Bangladesh)” in Vikramaditya Prakash, Maristella Casciato, and Daniel E. Coslett, eds., Rethinking Global Modernism: Architectural Historiography and the Postcolonial, (New York: Routledge, 2021): 190-215.
• “A Critical Reading of Dry and Permanent Grounds Through the Practice of Muslin Weaving” in Lindsay Bremner, ed., Monsoon Assemblages: Monsoon [+ Other] Grounds, (London: University of Westminster, 2020): 113-120.
• “Decolonizing the Cities to Address Flood, Rain and Water”, The Daily Star, in Focus, August 17, 2020.
• “Symbiosis Between Water and Architecture; Towards Hydro Based Urbanism in Keraniganj, Dhaka” in Nancy Clark, ed., Urban Waterways: Evolving Paradigms for Hydro-based Urbanisms, UNESCO Chair Publication Series n.3: L’architettura delle città; The Journal of the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni (Rome, Italy: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2016), 143-154.