Tamara Z. Jamil

Broadly, I am interested in the relationships between carcerality, rurality, toxicity, and aesthetics. More specifically, my research focuses jail expansion/construction in rural counties. As a secondary interest, I have previously researched the ‘humanizing’ trend of the urban carceral sphere.

Before starting my Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, I worked as a Researcher/Designer at MASS Design Group’s Restorative Justice Design Lab. Before that and as a Researcher with Forensic Architecture, I primarily worked on the ‘Huellas de Desaparición’ investigation. This project zoomed into the forced disappearance of 22 persons after the siege of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1985; the work required reading hundreds of testimonies, 3D modeling environments to be used during Situated Testimony interviews, going through over 50 hours of cumulative video coverage, animation and video editing, amongst other tasks.

In my downtime, I alternate between my Peruvian and Lebanese backgrounds to cook my favorite dishes from each. I have yet to try to make a Peruvian-Lebanese fusion dish, although it sounds like a great idea.

I am happy to talk to those interested in engaging in critical research, especially anyone coming from a design background.