Tamara Z Jamil

Tamara Z Jamil is an architectural designer and researcher interested in the spatial politics of incarceration, specifically addressing the jail construction boom occurring in the rural sphere in parallel to the ‘humanization’ of carceral infrastructure in the urban sphere.

She received her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University with her theoretical thesis “Captivatem.” The project addressed how the prison’s removal from urbanity has excused society from assimilating the punitively sharp line used to differentiate ‘law-abiding’ citizens from ‘criminals.’

Tamara received her Masters in Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research zoomed into the closing of Rikers Island, the jail island in New York City, and the imminent construction of the four new Borough-Based Jails to comment on the nation’s prevalent support, financially and ideologically, of continuing jail construction and maintaining the ‘criminal’ identity instead of promoting justice reinvestment in targeted communities.