Shaden Awad is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Architectural Engineering -Birzeit University. She received her B.Sc. in Architectural Engineering from Birzeit University in 1998, and her M.Sc. in Urban Planning and Design from the same University in 2005. In 2006 she received her M.A in Architectural Conservation from Al-Quds University. Shaden Awad worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of Architectural Engineering at Birzeit University 2000-2007. In 2007, she received a scholarship to continue her doctoral studies in the Doctoral School of Architecture - Graz University of Technology, Austria. She is teaching courses including, Vernacular Architecture, Residential Design, and Environmental Architecture. Her main fields of interest are Palestinian local architecture, urban and rural regeneration and domestic culture .