Petra Brouwer is Assistant Professor of Architectural History at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in the history, theory, and historiography of modern architecture and town planning. Her research focuses on 19th-century architectural knowledge, canon formation, postwar Dutch urbanism, and the relationship between architecture and identity.  

She studied art history and physical planning at the University of Amsterdam, graduating cum laude in both fields. Her award-winning thesis on Dutch new towns Lelystad and Almere was published in 1997. In 2009, she earned her PhD from VU Amsterdam; her dissertation, The Laws of Architecture, was published in 2011 and shortlisted for the Karel van Mander Prize.     

Brouwer has received grants from institutions such as the Getty Research Institute and NIAS. She serves on the Amsterdam Spatial Quality and Monuments Committee, co-directs the MA track in Urban and Architectural History, and was editor-in-chief of Architectural Histories (2017–2021).