The College of Architecture, Art and Planning offers degrees in architectural design (B.Arch, professional and post-professional M.Archs) and in fine arts, as well as professional degrees in Urban and Regional Studies, Regional Planning, International Development, Regional Science and Real Estate. This context offers a distinct setting for the History of Architecture and Urban Development (HAUD) program. More precisely, HAUD is situated within an environment of creative practice. Within this context, the processes by which the object or site is produced, executed, tested, interpreted and reformulated over time are the subject of concern.
The history program provides opportunities for the dialogue between various programs and constituencies within the college as well as the greater university. It provides the site for intellectual exchange between artists, critics, designers, historians, planners, preservationists and those studying visual culture. Courses and research projects are designed with this in mind. The HAUD program understands that history is a contemporary and creative practice – in which the subjects of study and modes of inquiry reflect as much about the present day as they do about the past.
The program is committed to the study of the built environment and cultural landscape from the point of view of cultural history. As is evidenced in lectures and seminars, faculty research and student projects, there is a sustained interest in analyzing the cultural context of the built domain – whether at the scale of the building, cities or landscapes, both monumental and mundane.
Within this humanities laboratory, faculty and students study human values, attributes and capabilities as reflected in our constructed environments. Experimentation and examination are set in balance with reflection and repose. Architectural theory is subsumed within the disciplinary demands of historical fieldwork and archival research.
The Cornell Graduate School strongly supports interdisciplinary study. This is echoed within the structure of the HAUD program. Graduate students are required to form graduate committees that are best suited to their respective projects. Guided by one of the core architectural history professors, students have formed committees that include faculty from American Studies, Anthropology, the History of Art and Archaeology, Asian Studies, German Cultural Studies, Government, Historic Preservation, History, Italian Studies and Landscape Architecture, among others. In recognition of this intense pluralism and the contribution that the discussion of the built environment and cultural landscape makes to other disciplines, the history faculty are active in other graduate fields, including American Studies, German Studies, Historic Preservation Planning, History of Art and Archaeology, Institute for European Studies, Landscape Architecture, Romance Studies and South Asia Studies.
Pluralism characterizes the current state of the discipline as reflected in the HAUD faculty’s areas of interest and expertise. Theoretical frameworks from anthropology, cultural geography, folklore and popular culture, intellectual history, urban and architectural history, and visual and media studies shape our program’s offerings and faculty areas of research. Bonnie MacDougall’s interests in South Asia are guided by a trans-nationals readings of architecture, culture and society. Chris Otto’s areas of expertise focus on urban and architectural histories of Central and Eastern Europe from the 17th through the 21st centuries. D. Medina Lasansky’s work focuses on the intersection of politics and popular culture in the built environment of the Mediterranean. Mary Woods examines erasures and inscriptions of identity (in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, locality and nationality) in her architectural and urban histories of North America, Western Europe and the Caribbean. Together the faculty focuses on the peripheries as well as traditional centers of scholarship. They work to articulate the connections among history, theory, design and practice within a unique climate devoted to the humanities and creative arts. These efforts are all a response paradigm shifts within history and related disciplines of the last 30 years.
The small and intense nature of the HAUD program emphasizes rigorous, independent thought created through a partnership of students working closely with their faculty advisors and committees. Students who are self-motivated and demonstrate the ability to grow and thrive intellectually within a dynamic and interdisciplinary environment are encouraged to apply. As such, there is no typical profile for incoming graduate students. They come from around the world from a variety of educational, cultural and life experiences.
Students are encouraged to develop their skills in writing and thinking as well as research methodologies. Those studying at the graduate level are encouraged to become active members within the profession by becoming members of the various disciplinary associations (Society of Architectural Historians, College Art Association, and the Vernacular Architectural Forum, among others) and presenting papers at conferences. In addition, students and faculty organize and participate in a wide range of symposia, conferences, exhibitions, and publications within and beyond Cornell. Here they contribute significantly to intellectual life on national and international levels.
Teaching also is an important part of the graduate program. Graduate students assist professors in intermediate levels courses, as well as developing and leading discussion sections for the introductory survey. The survey provides a global review of the built environment and the cultural landscape.