Topics in Architectural History II, 1900 - present

COURSE NUMBER

ARCH 505

CREDITS

3

Description

Hybrid lecture-seminar course on a focused topic covering one thematic aspect of the history of architecture during the time period of 1900–present. Through in-depth study of a particular thematic topic, students will engage with the latest research and approaches to understanding the history of architecture as embedded within cultural, political, and economic contexts. Students will produce individual research papers. The topic of this course will be unique from other architectural history courses offered in the previous three years.

Winter 2023 term 2 

ARCH 505M: Architecture and the Body Politic

Dr. Tijana Vujosevic and Tania Gutierrez-Monroy

The notion of the “body politic” is a metaphor describing the social collective. But our literal, physical, bodies are also politicized. Social positions are translated into space as our bodies become classified, disciplined, directed, and oriented by arbitrary notions that often override self-identifications. Our very experience of being alive is shaped upon social hierarchies and relationships of power. And architecture plays a central role in this experience as it directs our movement, access, use, behavior and perception in a way that reflects social values. How does the spatial construction of the body determine who we are as participants in the body politic and what we can do within it?

Open to all students in SALA.