Joshua Adam COMAROFF

Assistant Professor Joshua Comaroff is a designer and cultural geographer. He studied literature and creative writing at Amherst College, before completing the M.Arch and MLA degrees at Harvard Graduate School of Design (the former with distinction). Joshua also received a PhD in geography from the University of California Los Angeles in 2009.

Joshua has published writing about architecture, urbanism, religion, and politics, with an Asian focus. In particular, his research focuses upon the effect of material and immaterial practices in the experience of the city, and the affective potentials of architecture. He is the author of Spectropolis: Ghostly Capital and Ecologies of Disturbance in Singapore (coming fall 2025, University of Minnesota Press) and, with Associate Professor Ong Ker-Shing, co-author of Horror in Architecture (University of Minnesota Press, 2023).

Joshua is the co-founder of Lekker Architects, an award-winning practice focused on design innovation and qualitative research methods. The work of the practice has earned a President’s Design Award Design of the Year in 2023 for “Hack Care: Tips and Tricks for a Dementia-Friendly Home” and again in 2016 for “Caterpillar’s Cove Childcare and Development Centre.” He was also awarded the Wheelwright Fellowship in 2005-2006.