Biography

Research interests: participative urbanism and design, human-machine interaction, smart cities, public performances and interventions, theories of subject formation, urban ecosystems and animal life forms in urban spaces.

Alexandru (Alec) Balasescu is an anthropologist, writer, curator and author of Paris Chic, Tehran Thrills. Aesthetic Bodies, Political Subjects (ZETA Books, 2007). He publishes extensively in international journals covering interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to urbanism, design, material culture and the body. His research has received support from the Center for German and European Studies, UC Berkeley; the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research; the British Library; the French Institute of Research in Iran; and the Open Society Institute.

Over the past six years he has held administrative positions and was engaged in projects of urban regeneration through arts and culture in Bucharest and Istanbul. He also taught in several universities, including The American University of Paris, RUW Bahrain and Galatasaray University in Istanbul. He co-edited the special issue of the Journal of Development on urban sustainability (vol 54.3, 2011).

Dr. Balasescu obtained his LEED AP accreditation in Vancouver and is a founding member of the Moving Matters Traveling Workshop, based at UC-Riverside.