Pamela Karimi

Pamela Karimi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP). She is a trained architect and historian of art and architecture with a focus on the modern and contemporary Middle East. Her interdisciplinary research bridges architecture, art, environmental studies, and socio-political dynamics, particularly in contexts of resistance, spatial justice, and sustainability.

• Ph.D., History, Theory & Criticism of Art and Architecture, MIT (2009)
• Previous teaching positions: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Brandeis University, NYU, Wellesley College

Her research centers on critical spatial practice, artistic activism, and gendered spatial politics, especially in Iran. She explores how artists and architects navigate state restrictions to reclaim public space and foster democratic expression. Her work also extends to post-industrial cities in North America and the global politics of cultural heritage.

Her recent publications include the award-winning Alternative Iran: Contemporary Art and Critical Spatial Practice (2022) and the newly released Women, Art, Freedom: Artists and Street Politics in Iran (2024), which examines the role of art in the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. Her publications and curated exhibitions reveal a consistent focus on resistance, memory, and spatial transformation.

Notable awards include the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Book Award (2024), a NEH Summer Stipend (2023), and grants from the Graham Foundation and the Käte Hamburger Institute. She has also received recognition for teaching excellence.

She has curated impactful exhibitions such as Black Spaces Matter (2017–2019), which explored race and architecture in 19th-century New Bedford, MA, and has held leadership roles in academic organizations including the Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative and the Thresholds Journal. Her research is widely covered in media outlets like NPR, BBC, Al-Jazeera, and The Washington Post.

She is currently working on a book titled Survival by Design: Desert Architecture at the End of the World and contributing to the Cultural History of Asian Art series, reflecting her broad and evolving scholarly engagement with global spatial and cultural issues.