About the Critic

Pamela Karimi is an architect and historian whose work bridges the Middle East and the wider world. She earned her Ph.D. from MIT and has taught at Cornell, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Brandeis, NYU, and Wellesley.

Her research explores how art, architecture, and environmental change intersect with social and political life. Her current book, Survival by Design, looks at desert architecture and environmental transformation in arid regions from the Cold War to today. Her award-winning Alternative Iran (2022) examines how Iranian artists and designers navigate restrictive state regulations, while her forthcoming book documents the grassroots art of Iran’s 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.

Karimi’s work travels well beyond Iran, from preserving cultural heritage in the Middle East to reimagining post-industrial cities in North America. She has coedited The Destruction of Cultural Heritage: From Napoleon to ISIS, and curated the acclaimed Black Spaces Matter exhibition.

Featured by NPR, BBC, The Washington Post, and more, Karimi brings scholarship into public conversation — connecting past and present, local and global, to reframe how we see art, design, and the spaces we share.