Nominees for the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom (2024-2027)

Niloofar Rasooli

Niloofar Rasooli (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in architecture history and theory at ETH Zürich. She writes and teaches at the intersection of anti-colonial queer feminism, erased memories and archives, resistance, rebellion, revolution, and the reclamations of the built and lived environment. She moved from Tehran to Zürich in 2021 and now holds a doctorate fellowship at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture, gta, ETH Zürich, Switzerland. Her doctoral research, "Transgressing the Forbidden: Gender Boundaries and Their Counter-Narratives in Iran (1848–1936)", investigates feminist criticism and resistance, as well as the collective critical imagination, against the disciplined built environment of pre-modern Iran. Niloofar holds a Master's degree in Studies of Architecture in Iran, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran (2018). Before joining gta, she worked as a journalist, editor, and essayist in Tehran, contributing to various political and architectural journals and newspapers. Niloofar’s writings have been featured in Kohl Journal (upcoming), trans magazine, Woz, 1.mai committee, Koubeh, Etemad, Kargadan, Abadi, among others. At the moment, Niloofar serves as a member of PDK (Parity and Diversity Commission) of the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich, and that stands in addition to having first-hand experience with observing, questioning, dealing, and living amidst particular threats to the academic freedom of speech proliferating since 7 October in germanophone universities, giving a solid motivation and necessity to join BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom.