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Bio / Media Kit


Aimi Hamraie (they/them) is Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, & Society and American Studies at Vanderbilt University, and director of the Critical Design Lab. They live and work on the original homelands of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, and Muscogee (Creek) people.

[Image description: Aimi Hamraie, an olive-skinned Iranian person with short dark curly hair, smiles at the camera. They wear rectangular glasses and a blue button-up shirt. Behind them is a blurry green background]

Contact


Email: aimi.hamraie@vanderbilt.edu
Twitter: @AimiHamraie
For speaking or consultation requests, please visit the Requests page.

Headshots


Download headshots and image descriptions

One sentence bio


Aimi Hamraie (they/them) is a disabled SWANA designer and design researcher based at Vanderbilt University, and author of Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability (2017). They are a member of the U.S. Access Board and a 2022 United States Artists Fellow 

Bio, academic


Aimi Hamraie (they/them) is Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, & Society and American Studies at Vanderbilt University, and director of the Critical Design Lab. Hamraie is author of Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) and host of the Contra* podcast on disability and design. They are a member of the U.S. Access Board and a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. Hamraie’s interdisciplinary academic research focuses on accessibility and built environments. Trained as a feminist disability scholar, they contribute to the fields of critical disability studies, science and technology studies, critical design and urbanism, critical race theory, and the environmental humanities. Hamraie’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Smithsonian Institution, the Mellon Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Arts, and the National Humanities Alliance. They are quoted by the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, National Public Radio, the History Channel, the Huffington Post, Art News, and others.


Bio, public


Aimi Hamraie (they/them) is Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, & Society and American Studies at Vanderbilt University, and director of the Critical Design Lab. Hamraie is author of Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) and host of the Contra* podcaston disability and design. They are a member of the U.S. Access Board and a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. They are quoted by the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, National Public Radio, the History Channel, the Huffington Post, Art News, and others. Hamraie’s critical design work focuses on disability arts, digital media, tactical urbanism, fashion, participatory mapping, and landscape design. Hamraie is a certified permaculture designer and herbalist, with particular interest in anti-racist and disability-justice centered practices. They have worked as a community organizer in disability justice, anti-war, labor, racial justice, and immigration justice struggles, and co-founded the Nashville Disability Justice Collective and Nashville Mutual Aid Collective.

Bio, arts


Aimi Hamraie (they/them) directs the Critical Design Lab, a multidisciplinary and international collaborative of disabled artists, designers, and design researchers. They are a 2022 United States Artists Fellow and host of the Contra* podcast on disability design justice. With Cassandra Hartblay and Jarah Moesch, Hamraie co-curated #CripRitual, a multi-site exhibition of twenty-five disabled artists at the Tangled Arts and Disability and Doris McCarthy Galleries in Toronto. Hamraie’s creative practice spans social practice and design (wood, leather, textiles, architecture, and landscapes). Their intellectual and creative work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Smithsonian Institution, the Mellon Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Arts, and the National Humanities Alliance.


Accessibility Rider


All events must have an accessibility plan. When requesting an event with me, please describe your accessibility plan in this Event Request form. I do not participate in events that do not advertise available accessibility, including ASL and CART, and  plan a budget for this from the beginning. 

If you are requesting a podcast recording, please include your plan for simultaneous release of the text transcript with the episode. I highly encourage all podcasters to adopt protocols for accessible podcasting, and make transcripts available for all episodes.

For in-person events, my access needs include: fragrance-free policy (included in the event publicity); presentation space without LED or flourescent lighting (window lighting is great); presentation space without loud buzzing sounds; breaks between events; no more than two events per day; lodging (when applicable) organized in consultation with me to ensure accessibility; and a text-based itenerary of all events sent at least three days prior to my visit. I cannot do events that do not have these forms of access in place.