About Paul M. Farber

Dr. Paul M. Farber (he or they) is among the nation's thought leaders on monuments, memory, and public space. He is the Director and Co-Founder of Monument Lab, a nonprofit public art, history, and design studio based in Philadelphia reimagining monuments as places of learning, healing, and belonging.

Farber is author and co-editor of numerous publications including Re:Generation (2026), Declaration House (2026), National Monument Audit (2021), A Wall of Our Own: An American History of the Berlin Wall (2020), and Monument Lab: Creative Speculations on Philadelphia (2019). Farber’s previous curatorial and collaborative work includes Beyond Granite: Pulling Together with Salamishah Tillet, the first curated multi-artist public art exhibition on the National Mall in Washington D.C. (2023), and Declaration House in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park (2024) with Anna Arabindan-Kesson and Yolanda Wisher. Farber is the host and creator of The Statue, a podcast series from WHYY/NPR which was recognized as a Webby Honoree in Best Podcasts in the Arts & Culture. 

In addition to his work with Monument Lab, Farber has held academic appointments at the University of Pennsylvania, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at the George Washington University, and Haverford College. He served as curator for the inaugural Artist-in-Residence Program at the Office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia (2020), keynote speaker for the Americans for the Arts national conference (2020), and Scholar in Residence at Mural Arts Philadelphia (2015–2017), and an advisor to numerous monument and memorial projects including for the City of Newark and the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. His work on culture has also previously appeared in The Guardian, Brooklyn Rail, Al Jazeera, Museums & Social Issues, Diplomatic History, Art & the Public Sphere, Vibe, and on NPR. 

Farber was born and raised in Philadelphia's Mt. Airy neighborhood. He holds a PhD from the University of Michigan in American Culture and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Urban Studies. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (New York, NY), Board of Directors of A Long Walk Home (Chicago, IL), and Advisory Board of the Humboldt Forum (Berlin, Germany).