Despina Stratigakos

About Fellow

Despina Stratigakos, a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Architecture, is a historian and writer who explores how power and ideology shape the built environment. Her research ranges from the creation of domestic spaces to the architecture of world empires. Her current book project tells the stories of Western ghost towns from the perspective of the plants that humans left behind.

Stratigakos is the former vice provost for inclusive excellence at the University at Buffalo. She has served on the boards of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House, Society of Architectural Historians, and the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Stratigakos earned her PhD from Bryn Mawr College and taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan before joining the University at Buffalo. She was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton during the 2016–17 academic year.

Selected Publications

• Stratigakos, Despina, Elana Shapira, et al. Finding Ella Briggs: The Life and Work of an Unconventional Architect. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2025.
• Stratigakos, Despina. Hitler’s Northern Utopia: Building the New Order in Occupied Norway. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. 2022 Society of Architectural Historians Spiro Kostof Book Award.
• Stratigakos, Despina. Where Are the Women Architects? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016.
• Stratigakos, Despina. Hitler at Home. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015.
• Stratigakos, Despina. A Women’s Berlin: Building the Modern City. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. 2009 DAAD Book Prize of the German Studies Association.