She received her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University (2000) and her B.A. in Art History and Spanish Literature from Mount Holyoke College. Patel has edited several volumes, written numerous articles, and authored Building Communities in Gujarat: Architecture and Society during the Twelfth through Fourteenth Centuries (E. J. Brill, 2004). Her forthcoming projects include a monograph (The Ghurid Architecture of South Asia and Historiography at the Ends of the Islamic World), and an edited volume (The History and Historiography of Reuse in South Asia).