Sombol Mokhles

Biography

As a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning and funded by a University of  Melbourne Graduate Research Scholarship, Sombol is passionate about alleviating inequalities in tackling climate change.

Through here PhD, “an evidence-based approach to climate change experimentation in international city networks”, Sombol intends to explore manifold factors of climate change actions and learning between similar cities (based on their climate actions) in international city networks, to encourage more vulnerable cities to take action.

Sombol received her Master of Philosophy, Architecture and Urban Studies (First-Class Honours) from the University of Cambridge and holds a Master of Urban Design (First-Class Honours), and BSc, Architecture (First-Class Honours) from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Iran. Her Master of Philosophy was on the role of place-making in women’s living experience in an informal settlement in Iran from the well-being perspective. Sombol is an Omid-Cambridge Trust scholar and was awarded Queens’ College studentship and Kettle’s Yard Travel Award to undertake her research. To elaborate on women’s different geographies of place in informal settlements, she relied on her experience as an urban designer in regeneration plans in Iran.

Having a background in architecture and urban design with professional experience on national and local projects in Iran, Sombol is interested in qualitative and data-driven research to integrate design, policy, socio-cultural context, and multi-level governance responses to inequalities.