Expanding Agency: Women, Race and the Global Dissemination of Modern Architecture

Lectures, Talks & Events

  • Spiritual Heritage: Mendelsohn’s Late Synagogue Architecture in the U.S.

    Kathleen James-Chakraborty – Zoom lecture for Positioning: Erich Mendelsohn and the Built Heritage of the 20th Century, Berlin, Germany. The discussion of the role of race in mid-century modernism includes the role played by religion as well as skin color.  Delivered for a conference that marked the birthday of Erich Mendelsohn and is part of an Read more

  • Spiritual Heritage: Mendelsohn’s Late Synagogue Architecture in the U.S.

    Kathleen James-Chakraborty: Zoom lecture for Positioning: Erich Mendelsohn and the Built Heritage of the 20th Century, Berlin, Germany. Read more

  • Chloethiel Woodard Smith

    Chloethiel Woodard Smith

    Kathleen James-Chakraborty: Zoom lecture for the ETH Zürich, Switzerland. Delivered to a class at the ETH in Zürich, this talk introduced students to the career of the architect who for twenty years ran the largest and most acclaimed practice of any woman in the United States at the time.  It focused on how she had Read more

  • Designing for Justice: Modernism and the Transformation of the Capital Region

    Kathleen James-Chakraborty – in-person conference paper, Global Irish Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., USA. This talk discussed how the postwar redevelopment of Southwest displaced thousands of mostly Black Washingtonians while providing the city with some of the earliest integrated new apartment blocks.  The architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith played a crucial role in its reshaping.  Focusing Read more

  • Expanding Agency: Women and Modern Architecture and Design

    Expanding Agency: Women and Modern Architecture and Design

    Kathleen James-Chakraborty: Zoom lecture for McGill University, Montreal, Canada. The recent explosion of interest in the work of female architects does not fully capture the impact that woman have had on the shaping of the built environment. Documenting their activity as journalists, entrepreneurs, and institution builders, as well as extending the established scholarship on women’s Read more