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Priya Jain, AIA, LEED BD+C

Associate Professor

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Affiliations

  • Department of Architecture
  • Center for Heritage Conservation

Biography

Priya Jain, AIA, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University. An architect licensed in both the US and India, she has worked on the reuse and restoration of a diverse range of buildings, including Trinity Church in Boston, the Jewett Arts Center at Wellesley College, St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington DC, the Richardson-Olmsted Complex in Buffalo and Jaisalmer Fort, India. Her teaching and research focus on twentieth-century South Asian architectural history and preservation within a transnational context. She is particularly interested in exploring how machinations of race and class figure in the marketing, export and adoption of architectural ideas and technologies. Her work has been published in a number of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, including the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE),  Architectural Theory Review (ATR), Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism, amongst others. Priya serves as Secretary and Board Member of the national non-profit Historic Preservation Education Foundation (HPEF), and is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), the flagship journal of the Association of the Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). She is the recipient of 2024-25 Faculty Fellowship by the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University. Priya also co-chairs the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) Climate Change and Architectural History Affiliate Group, serves on the SAH Heritage Conservation Committee and is the Communications Lead of the SAH Women in Architecture Affiliate Group. She has been the Field Editor (Architecture) for the Getty Conservation Institute AATA Online (Abstracts of Conservation Literature) since 2017.

Education

M.Arch

University of Arizona
2007

Certificate in Preservation Studies

University of Arizona
2007

B.Arch

School of Planning and Architecture
New Delhi
India
2004

Staff Publications

  • 2023 Priya Jain, "Prefabrication and Transnational Building Materials in Modern India," Architectural Theory Review (2023) View
  • 2022 Priya Jain, “Clean, Cool Air: Health and Air Conditioning in India,” in “Health,” ed. Sara Stevens and Joy Knoblauch, Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 76, no. 1 (2022) View
  • 2021 Priya Jain, “Selling Comfort: Volkart Brothers and the Origins of Air Conditioning in India (1923-1954),” in “Retrofit—Energy Crises & Climate Exigencies from Preservation’s Perspective,” ed. Daniel A. Barber and Fallon Aidoo, Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism, vol.18 (2021) View
  • 2021 Priya Jain, “India’s Modern Heritage: Conservation Challenges and Opportunities,” in Heritage Conservation in Postcolonial India: Approaches and Challenges, ed. Manish Chalana and Ashima Krishna (New York: Routledge, 2021), 126-137. ISBN 9780367619947. View
  • 2020 Priya Jain, “A Splendorous Burden,” in “Water,” ed. Alpa Nawre and Carey Clouse, Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 74, no. 1 (2020): pp. 123-125. View
  • 2020 Priya Jain, “Between College and Town: Envisioning the First Indian MIT and the Planning of the Indian Institute of Technology (1951) in Kharagpur,” Arris: Journal of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, no. 31 (2020): pp. 46-66. ISSN 10485945. View
  • 2019 Priya Jain, “Building Biographies: Chronicling Time in Architectural Representation” in Proceedings of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) 107th Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, eds. Amy Kulper, Grace La and Jeremy Ficca (2019): 610-613. ISBN: 978-1-944214-21-0. View
  • 2018 Priya Jain, “The ‘Iconic’ and ‘Everyday’ Mid-century Modern: Shifting Attitudes Towards Repair and Preservation,” in Proceedings of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) 106th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, eds. Amir Ameri and Rebecca O'Neal Dagg (2018): 534-539. ISBN: 978-1-944214-15-9. View