Azra Aksamija

Azra Akšamija, Ph.D., is an artist and architectural historian. She was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1976. In 1997, she obtained Austrian citizenship. In 2001, she graduated from the University of Graz with a degree in architecture. In 2004, she earned a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University, USA, and in 2011 she received her PhD in History and Islamic Art and Architecture from MIT, Cambridge (History Theory and Criticism of Art and Architecture / Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture). In 2013, she received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for her design of the prayer room at the Islamic Cemetery Altach, Austria. In 2018, she received the Art Award of the City of Graz and in 2020, she received an honorary doctorate from Montserrat College of Art. She is an associate professor in the MIT Department of Architecture, Program in Art, Culture and Technology, where she directs the Future Heritage Lab.