Pamela Karimi

Pamela Karimi is an Associate Professor at Cornell University and a renowned architect and historian specializing in modern and contemporary art, architecture, and visual culture, with notable expertise in the Middle East and cinema. She earned her Ph.D. from MIT’s History, Theory & Criticism of Art and Architecture Program in 2009. Before joining Cornell, she taught at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Brandeis University, NYU, and Wellesley College.

Her interdisciplinary research bridges architecture, art, environmental studies, and socio-political dynamics. Karimi’s award-winning monograph, Alternative Iran: Contemporary Art and Critical Spatial Practice (Stanford University Press, 2022), investigates how Iranian artists, filmmakers, architects, and designers navigate spatial constraints under restrictive state policies. Her forthcoming book, supported by the Persian Heritage Foundation, examines the grassroots artistic movements during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in Iran, highlighting their impact on public space and democracy.

Currently, she is working on Survival by Design: Desert Architecture at the End of the World, a project supported by a fellowship at the Käte Hamburger Institute, exploring architectural and environmental transformations in arid regions. She also collaborates on Cultural History of Asian Art, a comprehensive collection on Asian art and architecture spanning 2,500 years.

Karimi’s global focus addresses pressing socio-political and environmental challenges. She coedited The Destruction of Cultural Heritage: From Napoleon to ISIS and curated the acclaimed traveling exhibition Black Spaces Matter. Her work has been featured in WBUR, NPR, The Washington Post, Al-Jazeera, and the BBC.

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