Michele Lamprakos

Photo: J. M. Ayala

Biography:

Trained as an architect and historian, Michele Lamprakos’s career has combined teaching, research, and practice in architecture, heritage, and community development. Her research focuses on two main themes: the lives and layers of buildings and sites; and the entangled histories of Islam and Christianity in the Mediterranean.  

Lamprakos’ forthcoming book, Memento Mauri: the Afterlife of the Great Mosque of Cordoba  (spring 2027) explores that building’s changing fabric and meaning as cathedral, historic monument, and symbol of the Islamic past in Spain. Her first book, Building a World Heritage City: Sanaa Yemen, was recognized by the Society of Architectural Historians’ Spiro Kostof Award (Honorable Mention, 2018). Her research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts/National Gallery of Art, Washington DC,  the National Humanities Center, the Graham Foundation, and other institutions. 

Lamprakos lectures widely and has co-organized symposia and panels, including “Heritage and the Arab Spring” (Freer Gallery of Art, 2014) which explored the role of cultural heritage in a shifting Middle East.  Her courses at MAPP include “Islam in Africa: architecture and culture”; a two-part sequence on Mediterranean cities; and two thematic graduate seminars: “Adaptation” and “Destruction, Memory, Renewal.” She also teaches design studios and directs thesis projects on historically layered sites in the US and abroad.

In fall 2026, Lamprakos will be Visiting Associate Professor in the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. She has also held academic appointments at Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, and other institutions.

Her professional work has included design and preservation for buildings that range in scale from tobacco warehouses to prewar single-family houses.  She has served as Technical Reviewer for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and as Desk Reviewer for UNESCO. 

Education:

• Ph.D. in History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art/Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Master of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley
• Bachelor of Arts in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University