Kara Plaxa is a Ph.D. candidate in the History and Theory of Architecture program at Princeton University, investigating the intersections of gender, sexualities, and queer leather communities in juxtaposing American urban landscapes.

Plaxa has an extensive architecture background with an M.Arch from Wentworth Institute of Technology and an MS from the University of California, Berkeley. Her work fervently bridges two disciplines: Architecture and Gender Sexuality Studies, through auto-ethnography methodologies, oral histories, interpersonal relationships including research dinners, cross-conversations, and the establishment of traveling archives. 

Plaxa's recent publication, 'Boys Will Be Boys in Sick Architecture' (E-flux 2020), includes an exhibition at the CIVA museum in Brussels. Most recently, she delivered a lecture on her research at SFMoMA, furthering the discourse on the intersections of architecture and identity. Plaxa's research was featured at the Kink Out: Ephemera exhibition at MOCA, adding to the discussions around those who live and love differently.