Fabiola López-Durán

Fabiola López-Durán serves as Associate Professor of Art History at Rice University, where she also holds leadership roles as Associate Director of the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies and Magister of Hanszen College. Her transnational research examines modern and contemporary European and Latin American art and architecture through interdisciplinary lenses, with particular focus on eugenics, landscape, and the intersections of science and design.

López-Durán earned her Ph.D. in History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art from MIT following architectural training at Universidad de Los Andes in Venezuela. Her academic journey includes a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley, establishing her trajectory in transatlantic scholarly exchange.

Her research interests prominently feature modern Latin American art and architecture, transnational networks between Latin Europe and Latin America, and critical examinations of the Global South. She investigates how ecological discourses, racial theories, and scientific paradigms shaped architectural modernity, particularly through projects like her award-winning book Eugenics in the Garden which analyzes eugenic ideas in early 20th-century design. Current work extends into race, spatial justice, and the medicalization of urban environments.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals consistent engagement with medicalized landscapes, transnational architectural exchanges, and the material-semiotic relationships between bodies, nature, and built environments. Her scholarship frequently examines Argentina and Brazil while connecting Latin American cases to broader European theoretical frameworks, demonstrating how scientific discourses became embedded in aesthetic and urban practices.

• Robert Motherwell Book Prize (Dedalus Foundation, 2019) for Eugenics in the Garden
• SAH-Mellon Author Award (2017) for architectural history scholarship
• Faculty Teaching and Mentoring Award (Rice University, 2018)
• Race and Anti-Racism Research Fund Award for The Racial Geography Project (2020)
• Multiple teaching honors including Phi Beta Kappa Distinguished Teaching Award
• Prestigious fellowships from Woodrow Wilson, Fulbright, Kress, and CLIR programs

López-Durán maintains active mentorship of graduate students, evidenced by her Faculty Teaching and Mentoring Award, and leads significant research initiatives including The Racial Geography Project funded through Rice University's anti-racism initiatives. Her grant portfolio spans major humanities foundations with particular strength in architectural history fellowships.

As Associate Director of the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies, she shapes interdisciplinary programming that bridges art history with broader hemispheric studies, fostering collaborations across departments and institutions to advance understanding of Latin American and Latinx cultural production.