Spyros Papapetros (Architecture) has been named chair of the Humanities Council’s Program in European Cultural Studies (ECS), effective July 1, 2025. As chair, he will direct programming, lead executive committee meetings, and advise on the co-sponsorship of coursework, activities and events related to the study of European culture, past and present. This year, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of ECS, the program is planning a series of spring lectures, workshops, and an archival exhibition.
Papapetros, an associate professor of architecture, joined the Princeton faculty in 2003. He is an art and architectural historian and theorist whose work focuses on the historiography of art and architecture, the intersections between architecture and the visual arts, as well as the relationship between architecture, psychoanalysis and the history of psychological aesthetics.
He is currently teaching the Fall 2025 ECS core course “Rethinking European Culture in the Present,” which aims to provide a broad, multidisciplinary perspective on central debates in European culture and society that remain urgent in the present and expand beyond geographic and temporal limits. Papapetros is also teaching the graduate-level course “Topics in Architecture: Building Life: Architecture, Biology, and Design,” which focuses on major evolutionary and environmental issues, including adaptation, optimization, and the spatial claims of natural selection, as well as the building settings of modern biological research.
In Spring 2026, Papapetros will be teaching “Architectural Colonialities: Building European Power Across the Globe.” Housed in ECS and cross-listed in the School of Architecture, the course will count towards an elective for the new minor in European Studies.
Read his full biography on the School of Architecture website.
Visit the European Cultural Studies website for news and events.
