Princeton University School of Architecture has appointed Jay Cephas as Assistant Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture, effective July 1, 2021.

"We are thrilled to welcome Jay to the School of Architecture. The impact and originality of his scholarship will be transformative to Princeton and to the discipline of architecture as a whole," said Dean Mónica Ponce de León in a statement.

Cephas’ research focuses on how technology and labor converged with formulations of race and class identities to shape urban landscapes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was a 2019 W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and received a grant from the Graham Foundation in 2020 to support his work on the Black Architects Archive, an interactive digital repository of architectural practice that maps the genealogy of black architects from the nineteenth century to the present. Cephas also currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Architectural Education. 

Cephas will leave his current position as Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Northeastern University, where he is affiliate faculty in the Masters of Urban Planning and Policy Program, the Africana Studies Program, and the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks.

Cephas received his Ph.D. in History of Architecture and Urban Planning from Harvard University in 2014, and also holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Detroit Mercy.