Dr. Munawar is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is an archaeologist and UNESCO heritage expert, currently working on the QRDI-funded project, Re-thinking the 'Day After': Post-war Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Recently, he was commissioned by UNESCO to lead a research project on Innovating Documentary Heritage for Sustainable Development in AlUla, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Region.

Dr. Munawar is completing a book monograph, Rebuilding Syria: Cultural Heritage and Memory After Conflict, to be published by Edinburgh University Press. This work examines the lifecycles of heritage in conflict zones, exploring how communities affected by war perceive heritage destruction and post-conflict reconstruction, and how these processes intersect with identity formation and memory preservation in post-conflict contexts.

He is the editor of several volumes and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections. His research focuses on post-conflict reconstruction, the politics of the past, the uses of heritage and cultural memory, and the decolonisation of heritage in the Arab region and the Global South. His work bridges academia and practice, aiming to challenge colonial narratives and promote inclusive, community-centred approaches in the fields of post-conflict reconstruction and critical heritage studies.

Dr. Munawar has held research positions at the UNESCO, Brown University (USA), UCL-Qatar (Qatar), the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (Qatar), and the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (Qatar).​