• Faculty

  • Lina El-Shamy

    Part-Time Faculty

    Email
    elshamyl@newschool.edu

    Office Location
    L - 2 West 13th Street

    Download vCard

    Lina El-Shamy

    Profile

    Lina El-Shamy is a cultural anthropologist, design historian, and artist. Lina's research concerns the tensions and frictions of everyday life in contemporary Egypt, especially as those relate to domestic space and objects. Her work often combines both ethnographic and archival encounters, and is driven by the prospect of recovering alternative (epistemological) worlds that could redraft ways of relating and belonging. She holds a Bachelor of Design from Ontario College of Art and Design University, and an MA and PhD from the University of Toronto's Department of Art History. Lina was born in Alexandria, Egypt, grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and immigrated to Canada at age 15, making her life an Ibn-Battutian one full of shifting landscapes and perpetual curiosity. 

    Degrees Held

    PhD, Art History & Visual Culture (2016—2024), University of Toronto, Canada
    MA, Art History & Visual Culture (2015-2016), University of Toronto, Canada
    BDes, Graphic Design, Ontario College of Art & Design University (2011-2015), Toronto, Canada

    Research Interests

    contemporary Egyptian visual & material culture; design history; urban theory; Islamic art & architecture; visual anthropology; auto-ethnography

    Portfolio

    Website

    Current Courses

    Objects as History
    PLHT 1000, Spring 2026

  • Take The Next Step

Submit your application

Undergraduates

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

Undergraduate Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Graduates

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.