Nora Akawi is a Palestinian architect and assistant professor at The Cooper Union in New York and a former professor at Columbia University. Born in Haifa in 1985, she focuses her academic work on architecture, cartography, archives, and border studies, with a particular emphasis on what she describes as erasure, ruination, and settler colonialism in Israel, Palestine, and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Her scholarship explicitly positions architecture as a political tool in anti colonial resistance movements.
From 2012 to 2019, Akawi served as Director of Studio X Amman and as an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University. She remains affiliated with Columbia through the Center for Palestine Studies and sits on the steering committee of the Sijal Institute for Arabic Language and Culture in Amman. Her academic training includes a degree from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and a master’s degree from Columbia GSAPP, where her award winning thesis centered on the archive as a mechanism for reshaping Palestinian spatial imaginaries.
Akawi’s professional record reflects a sustained effort to embed political activism into academic and cultural production. Her writing, lectures, and exhibitions repeatedly accuse Israel of apartheid, racial capitalism, and genocide, often framing these claims through architectural and spatial theory. She has been a frequent speaker at events advocating divestment, resistance, and institutional opposition to Israel, including programs organized in response to the war in Gaza.
In 2025, Akawi served on the editorial team of a Journal of Architectural Education issue explicitly centered on what the editors described as Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. After the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture declined to publish the issue, Akawi and her co editors issued a public response accusing Israel of genocide and condemning the decision as political censorship. The volume was later redirected to an alternative publisher.
Her activism predates the current conflict and spans more than a decade. Akawi has signed multiple letters accusing Israel of apartheid, endorsing the right to resist occupation, and supporting boycott campaigns against Israeli institutions. She has repeatedly amplified content from BDS affiliated figures and organizations, including public endorsement of Omar Barghouti, the movement’s co founder.
Across academic appointments, public lectures, publications, and social media activity, Akawi consistently uses architectural discourse to advance a political narrative that delegitimizes the State of Israel and reframes academic institutions as sites of ideological struggle rather than neutral scholarship.
Record of Advocacy and Ideological Bias
Academic and Organizational Roles
Former adjunct assistant professor and program director at Columbia University
Assistant professor of architecture at The Cooper Union
Affiliated faculty member at Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies
Steering committee member at the Sijal Institute for Arabic Language and Culture
Co founder of an interdisciplinary research and design studio focused on anti colonial theory
Public Statements and Activism
Accused Israel of apartheid, settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and genocide in academic publications and public letters
Participated in divestment focused academic events and student led protest programming
Signed letters supporting the right to resist Israeli occupation
Published and promoted work framing architecture as a tool of anti Israel resistance
Endorsed and amplified BDS aligned narratives and figures including Omar Barghouti
Lectured extensively on Israeli colonialism and land control in Palestine and the Golan Heights
Collaborations and Affiliations
Collaborated with Center for Palestine Studies programming and initiatives
Participated in BDS aligned academic and cultural campaigns
Engaged with international activist networks opposing Israeli academic and cultural institutions
Amplified content from organizations and publications such as Electronic Intifada and Visualizing Palestine
Impact on Academic Discourse and Accountability Concerns
Nora Akawi’s record illustrates how academic platforms can be leveraged to advance ideological activism under the guise of scholarly inquiry. By consistently framing political accusations against Israel as architectural analysis and by embedding activist narratives within curricula, journals, and institutional events, her work contributes to the erosion of boundaries between scholarship and advocacy. This approach raises concerns about academic neutrality, the politicization of disciplinary fields, and the normalization of activism that operates beyond institutional accountability.
