Selected topics in the history of architecture. For current offerings, see department website.

This advanced reading course is organized around a selection of cutting-edge books of the last decade from the fields of architectural and urban history and theory. Through a combination of instructor presentations, close reading, student reports and directed critical discussion, the course will examine each book’s theoretical assumptions and methodological approaches within broader disciplinary, institutional and cultural contexts. Particular attention will be placed on books that provide historical understanding of social and spatial conditions of inequality. To this end, three sessions on activist epistemologies of method will be incorporated into the course, on racial capitalism, decolonial ecologies and transgender. The course texts, written by a mixture of established and emerging scholars, will situate local and national histories of architecture, urbanism and the built environment in a global, cross-cultural frame. Students will have the opportunity to suggest changes to the core texts by proposing others related to the topic their Master’s thesis or Ph.D dissertation. The final reading list will be developed collectively during the first two weeks of class. Depending on enrollment, students will work individually or in pairs to present summaries and analysis of weekly texts. Additional course requirements include four extended reading responses and a final position paper about a single text, or the relation of the course texts to individual research interests.

Repeat Rules