Azra Akšamija

Professor and Director
MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology; & Future Heritage Lab

Azra Akšamija is an artist and architectural historian based in Boston (US) and Graz (AT). She is a Professor in the MIT Department of Architecture, where she is the Director of the Art, Culture and Technology Program. She also directs the Future Heritage Lab. Rooted in the history and theory of art and architecture, Akšamija’s artistic practice and academic research explore transcultural aesthetics and artistic approaches to cultural preservation and in so doing, provides a framework for analyzing and intervening in contested socio-political realities.

Akšamija authored two books, Mosque Manifesto: Propositions for Spaces of Coexistence (2015) and Museum Solidarity Lobby (2019), and edited the volumes Architecture of Coexistence: Building Pluralism (2020) and Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp (2021, co-edited with R. Majzoub and M. Philippou). Her artistic work has been exhibited in leading international venues such as at the Generali Foundation Vienna, Valencia Biennial, Gallery for Contemporary Art Leipzig, Liverpool Biennial, Museums of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Ljubljana, Sculpture Center New York, Secession Vienna, Manifesta 7, Stroom The Hague, the Royal Academy of Arts London, Jewish Museum Berlin, Queens Museum of Art in New York, Design Week Festivals in Milan, Istanbul, Eindhoven and Amman, Qalandiya International, and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, as a part of the 54th Art Biennale in Venice. Most recently, her work has been shown at the Kunsthaus Graz, the Aga Khan Museum Toronto, Kestner Gesellschaft Hanover, and the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 and 2025. Akšamija holds two master’s degrees in architecture from Graz Institute of Technology (2001) and Princeton University (2004), and a Ph.D. in history, theory, and criticism in architecture from MIT (2011). She received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2013, the Art Award of the City of Graz in 2018, and an honorary doctorate from the Montserrat College of Art (2020).

Email: azra@mit.edu

Mailing Address:
Prof. Dr. Azra Akšamija
Art, Culture, and Technology Program

77 Massachusetts Ave.
Bldg. E15-231
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA