Gender, Race, and Architecture in the American City, 1865-1960

3 units

Architecture and the built environment of the American city has been an instrumental force in the ongoing construction and definition of racial, gender, and sexual identities. Through intensive reading, discussion, and visual presentations students in this course will investigate the spatial structuring of racism, segregation, and desegregation, the relationship between suburbanization and the middle-class ideology of separate spheres, the impact of the integration of women in the factory and office, and the role of gender and race in the design and programming of public and private institutions, including libraries, parks, schools, Masonic temples, the YMCA, and the YWCA. During the semester students will write weekly response papers, give several in-class presentations, and develop an independent research project.