[1][2][3] Her work focuses on the intersection of the built and destroyed environments with colonial practices and military operations from the early 19th century up to the present days.
[4] Samia Henni studied at the École polytechnique d'architecture et d'urbanisme in Algiers; Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Università della Svizzera Italiana; The Berlage Institute in Rotterdam; and at Goldsmiths, University of London and has received her Ph.D. from ETH Zurich.
She was the inaugural Albert Hirschman Chair (2021-22) for Identity Passions Between Europe and the Mediterranean at the Institute for Advanced Study (IMéRA) in Marseille; a Visiting Professor (Fall 2021) at the Institute of Art History at the University of Zurich; and a Geddes Visiting Fellow (Spring 2021) at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), Edinburgh College of Art, the University of Edinburgh.
Henni is the author of the multi-award-winning Architecture of Counterrevolution: The French Army in Northern Algeria (EN, gta Verlag, 2017; FR, Edition B42, 2019), in which she examined French colonial territorial transformations and spatial counterinsurgency measures in Algeria under colonial rule, especially during the Algerian Revolution (1954-1962).
She has curated various exhibitions, including Discreet Violence: Architecture and the French War in Algeria at the gta Institute, ETH Zurich; The New Institute in Rotterdam; Archive Kabinett in Berlin; the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg, La Colonie in Paris, VI PER Gallery in Prague, AAP Exhibitions at Cornell University, the Twelve Gates Arts in Philadelphia, and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.