Curriculum Vitae
updated November 18, 2024
ORCiD
0000-0002-6873-5922
Ph.D. History and Theory of Architecture (Princeton University, 2024)
M.A. History and Theory of Architecture (Princeton University, 2019)
M.Des. History and Philosophy of Design (Harvard University, 2017)
B.A. Art and Visual History (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 2014)
Clemens Finkelstein is a historian of the built environment and a theorist in the planetary humanities. He is a Research Associate at the Panel on Planetary Thinking at Justus Liebig University Giessen, exploring the entanglements of architecture, technoscientific networks, and planetary media and politics. He holds a Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Architecture from Princeton University, receiving Graduate Certificates in the History of Science and Media + Modernity. As a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University, he earned an M.Des. in the History and Philosophy of Design, graduating with a Commendation for Outstanding Achievement. His scholarship has been recognized through various fellowships, including at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies at the Free University Berlin, and the Center for Advanced Studies “Imaginaria of Force” at the University of Hamburg. Numerous grants have supported his work, including from the History of Science Society, the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment, and the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism & the Humanities. His transdisciplinary practice encompasses curation, publishing, teaching, and experimental art-science collaborations exhibited internationally. The book Planetary Forest (DISTANZ, 2024) documents one such project with bio- and geoscientists in the city forest of Frankfurt/a.M. His writing has appeared in several journals and edited volumes, including Sick Architecture (MIT Press, forthcoming), The Sound of Architecture (Leuven UP, 2022), Iconology of Abstraction (Routledge, 2020), Architectural Theory Review, ARCH+, and Technology & Culture. Currently, he is preparing three major book projects: a monograph, Architectures of Vibration: A History of Planetary Forces and Epistemic Networks, based on his doctoral dissertation; a co-authored volume, Our Planetary Condition: Foundations for a Politics with the Earth; and a co-edited compendium, Roots to Skylines: Hybrid Labor and Planetary Building. More information can be found at clemensfinkelstein.com.
Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
School of Architecture | Ph.D. History and Theory of Architecture | 2017-2024
School of Architecture | MA History and Theory of Architecture | 2017-2019
History of Science Department | Graduate Certificate in History of Science | 2018-2020
Program in Media and Modernity | Graduate Certificate in Media and Modernity | 2017-2024
Program in European Cultural Studies | Graduate Affiliate | 2020-2021
[cross-registered for coursework at]
New York University [New York, NY, USA]
Media, Culture, and Communication | “Science and Technology Studies” | Prof. Mara Mills | 2019
Columbia University [New York, NY, USA]
Art History and Archaeology / Comparative Media | “Genealogies of the Screen” | Prof. Noam M. Elcott | 2019
Harvard University [Cambridge, MA, USA]
Graduate School of Design | MDes History and Philosophy of Design | 2015-2017
[cross-registered for coursework at]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology [Cambridge, MA, USA]
Architecture - History, Theory + Criticism | “Architecture. Human Rights. Spatial Politics” | Prof. Felicity Scott | 2015
Architecture - History, Theory + Criticism | “Ph.D. Colloquium: Historiography, Techniques” | Prof. Mark Jarzombek | 2016
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin [Berlin, Germany]
Philosophische Fakultät III | BA Art and Visual History / Cultural Theory and History | 2009-2014
Goldsmiths, University of London [London, UK]
ERASMUS | BA Visual Cultures and Cinema/Media Studies | 2011-2012
Freie Universität Berlin [Berlin, Germany]
Training Center | Certificate in Art Market Management | 2012
2023-2024 Research Associate | “Planet as Method” Research Cluster - Panel on Planetary Thinking
Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen [Giessen, Germany]
2019-2024 Research Assistant | Prof. Dr. Spyros Papapetros: “Magic Architecture”
Spyros Papapetros, Gerd Zillner (Eds.): Frederick Kiesler, Magic Architecture:
The Story of Human Housing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2024.
Princeton University / Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Foundation [Princeton, NJ, USA / Vienna, Austria]
2018-2022 Program Manager | M+M Program in Media and Modernity
Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2020 Assistant in Instruction | Post-Professional Thesis Prep Seminar [Prof. Parsa Khalili]
Spring Princeton University, School of Architecture [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2019 Lecturer, Critic | Graduate Seminar: “Architectures of Play”
Fall Kent State University, CAED College of Architecture and Environmental Design [Kent, OH, USA]
2020 Assistant in Instruction | Post-Professional Thesis Prep Seminar [Profs. Elizabeth Diller, Sylvia Lavin, Parsa Khalili]
Fall Princeton University, School of Architecture [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2016 Instructor (with Anthony Morey) | Graduate Seminar: “Naive Design, Landscapes of Extraction“
J-Term Harvard University, Graduate School of Design [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2015-2017 Research Assistant | Prof. Sonja Dümpelmann: “Seeing Trees”
Sonja Dümpelmann: Seeing Trees: A History of Street Trees in New York City and Berlin.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019.
Harvard University [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2013-2014 Research Assistant | DFG (German Research Foundation) Project: “Urban Interventions”
HFBK Hochschule für Bildende Künste [Hamburg, Germany]
2020 Co-Director [with Parsa Khalili] | Â (Space Office)
ongoing Office for Digital Architecture and Extended Reality Design [Berlin, Germany / Vienna, Austria / New York City, USA]
2017-2021 Curator-at-Large | A+D Architecture and Design Museum LA
Architecture, Design, and Media Curation [Los Angeles, CA, USA]
2017 Editor-at-Large / Curator-at-Large | SYMEHYARCHE Magazine
ongoing Art and Architecture / SMHRCH Art Curation and Publishing [Seoul, South Korea]
2017-2020 Editor | Pidgin Magazine (Princeton University)
Princeton University, School of Architecture [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2016-2017 Editor / Curator | Open Issues (Harvard University)
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2017-2020 Editor-at-Large | SOME/THINGS Magazine
Avantgarde Art-Architecture Magazine [Paris, France]
2015-2017 Editor / Curator / Co-Founder | MASKS Journal (Harvard University)
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2015-2017 Editor | MDes Research Log (Harvard University)
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2014-2015 Project Manager | neo.studio (neumann schneider architekten)
exhibition design for cultural institutions and museum (re)branding [Berlin, Germany]
2013-2014 Project Manager | neo.studio (neumann schneider architekten)
art, architecture, design — publications, exhibitions, consulting [Berlin, Germany]
2012-2015 Director / Founder | Silent Veil Agency . Projects
art, architecture, design agency and gallery space [Berlin, Germany / London, UK]
FELLOWSHIPS
2024 PIIRS Fellowship [Princeton, NJ, USA]
Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
2023 Berlin Program in Advanced German and European Studies Fellowship [Berlin, Germany]
Freie Universität Berlin
2022-2023 Hamburg Center for Advanced Studies “Imaginaria of Force” Fellowship [Hamburg, Germany]
Universität Hamburg
2022 Planetary Artist & Scholar Fellowship [Giessen, Germany]
Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
2022 Princeton Digital Humanities Fellowship [Princeton, NJ, USA]
Princeton University Center for Digital Humanities
2018-2019 Lowell M. Palmer Fellowship [Princeton, NJ, USA]
Princeton University
2017-2022 Princeton University Fellowship [Princeton, NJ, USA]
Princeton University
SCHOLARSHIPS
2023-2024 Princeton DCE Merit Scholarship [Princeton, NJ, USA]
Princeton University
2022-2023 Princeton DCE Merit Scholarship [Princeton, NJ, USA]
Princeton University
2016-2017 Dean’s Merit Scholarship [Cambridge, MA, USA]
Harvard University
2015-2016 Dean’s Merit Scholarship [Cambridge, MA, USA]
Harvard University
2015-2017 Fulbright Scholarship
Fulbright Commission / Harvard University [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2011-2012 ERASMUS Scholarship
Goldsmiths, University of London [London, UK]
GRANTS
2022 Peter B. Lewis Fund for Student Innovation in Energy and the Environment Grant: “sick world.building syndrome”
ACEE - Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2022 Princeton SoA Exhibition Grant: “Sick Architecture”
Princeton University, School of Architecture [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2021 Princeton-Mellon Research Grant: “Sick Architecture”
Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism & the Humanities [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2021 Princeton-Mellon Research Grant: “Magic Architecture”
Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism & the Humanities [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2021 Princeton SoA Research Grant: “Sick Architecture”
Princeton University, School of Architecture [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2020 HSS Research Grant: “Viral Equilibrium”
History of Science Society [Notre Dame, IN, USA]
2020 The Metropolis Project Research Grant: “Covid-19 & Planetary Ambient”
Princeton University, School of Engineering & Applied Science [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2020 Princeton-Mellon Research Grant: “Covid-19 & Planetary Ambient”
Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism & the Humanities [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2019 Princeton University Conference Grant: “Field Studies”
Princeton University, School of Architecture, Art&Archaeology Department, History of Science Department [Princeton, NJ, USA]
AWARDS
2023 GSA German Studies Association - Conference Community Award
German Studies Association [Montréal, Canada]
2022 Princeton University - Conference Award
German Studies Association [Houston, TX, USA]
2022 GSA German Studies Association - Conference Community Award
German Studies Association [Houston, TX, USA]
2022 Princeton University - Conference Award
Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2022 Shanley Summer Research Award
Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2021 Shanley Summer Research Award
Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2020 Princeton University - Conference Award
Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2019 Princeton-Weimar Media Studies at IKKM - Conference Award
Internationales Kolleg für Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie [Weimar, Germany]
2019 Butler Summer Research Award [Summer 2019]
Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2018 Princeton University - Conference Award
Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2018 PIIRS Research Award [Summer 2018]
Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2018 Shanley Summer Research Award
Princeton University [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2017 Harvard Commendation for Outstanding Achievement
Harvard University [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2019 The Architecture Play (November 8, 2019)
Kent State University, CAED College of Architecture and Environmental Design [Kent, OH, USA]
2019 Field Studies, Princeton University Doctoral Colloquium (March 2-3, 2019)
Princeton University, School of Architecture [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2017 Open Issues: Discussions on Student Publishing (April 6, 2017)
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2023 The Sounds of Change (Crisis and Transformation Conference) (July 5, 2023)
Freie Universität Berlin, 11th Berlin Summer Workshop (Berlin, Germany)
2023 “Environment, c. 1923: Pallaesthesia and the Making of a Sixth Sense” (October 6, 2023)
GSA German Studies Association, 47th Annual Conference (Montréal, Canada)
panel: Map, Membrane, Mirror, Model: How Environmental Sense-abilities Shaped Modern Germany
chaired by Mimi Cheng, Clemens Finkelstein, William J. Stuart, Katerina Korola
2023 “Seismic Architectures and German World-Building in Samoa” (September 21, 2023)
SAH Society of Architectural Historians, 76th Annual Conference (Montréal, Canada) [virtual]
panel: Colonial Surveys
chaired by Samia Henni and Dalal Musaed Alsayer
2022 “Native by Nature: Designing Planetary Heimat in Oceania” (September 18, 2022)
GSA German Studies Association, 46th Annual Conference (Houston, TX, USA)
panel: The Visual Culture of German Colonialism
chaired by Mimi Cheng and Joseph Henry
2022 “Colonial Waves from Apia to Yap: Technoscientific Network Architectures of German Expansionism in Oceania” (June 30, 2022)
Para-Colonial – Colonial – Post-Colonial. Influences and Transactions in the Architecture of Oceania (1840–1990) (Auckland, NZ)
panel: German Colonialism in the Südsee and its Encounters (1884–1914)
chaired by Michael Falser and Christoph Schnoor
2019 “Vibe: Operative Ambience in Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios” (April 25, 2019)
SAH Society of Architectural Historians, PS02 The Sound of Architecture:
Acoustic Atmospheres in Place, Angeliki Sioli and Elisavet Kiourtsoglou (co-chairs)
[Providence, RI, USA]
2023 “Vibratory Milieus: Transæctional Environments, Inhuman Ecologies, and Urban Dwellers” (March 17, 2023)
“More-than-Human Cities” lecture series | Universiteit van Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
invited by Prof. Carolyn Birdsall (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
2022 “Vibration as Phenomenotechnique in the Spatial Conceptions of Modernism (From Geotechnik to Kulturtechnik)” (December 6, 2022)
Center for Advanced Studies “Imaginaria of Force” | Universität Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany)
invited by Frank Fehrenbach and Cornelia Zumbusch
2022 “Environmental Control: Seismicity as Design Technique in Wilhelmine Germany” (October 25, 2022)
Doctalks x Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Unbuilt Environment | MoMA Museum of Modern Art (New York City, NY, USA)
panel: The Visual Culture of German Colonialism
invited by Carson Chan, Demetra Vogiatzaki, Çiğdem Talu, and Sylvia Balzan
2022 “An Applied History of Vibration: Art-Science and Architecture-Technology” (May 10, 2022)
Panel on Planetary Thinking | Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen (Giessen, Germany)
invited by Claus Leggewie
2022 “Sick (World)Building Syndrome” (May 10, 2022)
CIVA - Centre for Information, Documentation and Exhibitions on the City, Architecture, Landscape and Urban Planning (Brussels, Belgium)
invited by Beatriz Colomina and Nikolaus Hirsch
2020 “Vibe, c. 1969: Indexical Ensembles in Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios” (August 5, 2020)
USC University of Southern California / University of Chicago (Los Angeles, CA / Chicago, IL, USA) [virtual]
invited by W.J.T. Mitchell, Vanessa Schwartz, and Orit Levin
2020 “The Science and Technology of Spatial Equilibrium” (March 9, 2020)
Princeton University, School of Architecture [Princeton, NJ, USA]
2019 “The Architectures and Cultural Techniques of Play” (November 8, 2019)
Kent State University, CAED College of Architecture and Environmental Design [Kent, OH, USA]
2019 “Deictic Dwelling: Liminal Epistemologies of Transmedial Abstraction
in Ryoji Ikeda’s micro|macro” (June 26, 2019)
IKKM Internationales Kolleg für Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie [Weimar, Germany]
2022 Planetary Forest (June-July 2022)
— with Mathias Kessler, Claudia Hartl, and the Panel on Planetary Thinking
Botanical Garden Giessen, Neuer Kunstverein Giessen e.V. [Giessen, Germany]
2018 Post-Course Bauhaus | ARCH+ Bauhaus Project 3: Datatopia (August 2018)
— with Zulaikha Ayub [Princeton University Magic Grant Project]
(co-directed by Beatriz Colomina/Princeton University and Mark Wigley/Columbia University)
Floating University [Berlin, Germany]
2017 Open Issues (April-June 2017)
Loeb Library Special Collections, Harvard University [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2016-2017 Night Light Series (September 2016 - April 2017)
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2016 Naive Design (January-March 2016)
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2016 Graphic Masks (January-February 2016)
fortyK Gallery, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design [Cambridge, MA, USA]
2013 Weltverbesserungsmaschine (August-October 2013)
— as curatorial assistant | curated by Friedrich von Borries
Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum of Contemporary Art [Berlin, Germany]
2012 Martin Kozlowski, Anti-Mnemosyne (August-November 2012)
Silent Veil Gallery [Berlin, Germany]
2023 Deutsch-koloniale Baukulturen. Eine Globale Architekturgeschichte in 100 Primärquellen (April-June 2023)
group exhibition | curated by Michael Falser | Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (Munich, Germany)
2022 Planetary Forest (May-August 2022)
solo exhibition | Neuer Kunstverein Giessen / Botanical Garden Giessen (Giessen, Germany)
2022 Sick Architecture (May-August 2022)
group exhibition | curated by Beatriz Colomina | CIVA Museum (Brussels, Belgium)
2021 The Future of _Space (revisited) (March-July 2021)
group exhibition | curated by Leila Anna Wahba
A+D Architecture and Design Museum (Los Angeles, CA, USA) {virtual}
2020 Working Remotely (May-October 2020)
group exhibition | curated by a83 | a83 Gallery (New York City, NY, USA)
2020 The Future of _Space (May-October 2020)
group exhibition | curated by Anthony Morey
A+D Architecture and Design Museum (Los Angeles, CA, USA) {virtual}
2017 architecture, architectural, Architecture (June-July 2017)
group exhibition | curated by Anthony Morey
A+D Architecture and Design Museum (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
2016 Night Light (Switch On) (September 21, 2016)
group exhibition | curated by Marielsa Castro, Andrea Carillo, Clemens Finkelstein, Anthony Morey,
Harvard University Graduate School of Design (Cambridge, MA, USA)
2016 Graphic Masks (January-February 2016)
solo exhibition | as MASKS (Clemens Finkelstein and Anthony Morey)
fortyK Gallery (Cambridge, MA, USA)
2016 Harvard Graduate School of Design, Special Collections | “Plan Obus” (1931-1942)
Large-scale architectural model (composite) of Le Corbusier’s “Plan Obus (1931-1942), Algiers, Algeria
created by Clemens Finkelstein, Anthony Morey, and Zach Matthews
conceived for the seminar Le Corbusier: Themes/Discourses/Figures
taught at Harvard University Graduate School of Design by Antoine Picon and K. Michael Hays (with Jean-Louis Cohen)
Design History Society (DHS)
[London, UK]
European Architectural History Network (EAHN)
[Madrid, Spain]
German Studies Association (GSA)
[Baltimore, MD, USA]
History of Science Society (HSS)
[Notre Dame, IN, USA]
International Council of Museums (ICOM)
[Paris, Île-de-France, France]
Netzwerk Architekturwissenschaft (NAW)
[Berlin, Germany]
Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)
[Eindhoven, Netherlands]
Society of Architectural Historians (SAH)
[Chicago, IL, USA]