The organizers are pleased to announce the first edition of the conference series WoArch (Women in Architecture) as an international symposium entitled, “Women as Builders, Designers, and Critics of the Built Environment Before 1800,” which will take place in Rome, on January 25 to 27, 2024. Organized by the University of Arkansas Rome Center in collaboration with the School of Architecture + Planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio, this symposium is also supported by the Women in Architecture Affiliate Group of the Society of Architectural Historians. The event will be hosted in person at the Rome Center in Palazzo Taverna, Rome, and will be live-streamed on the Rome Center YouTube channels. To view the speakers’ presentations online, please visit our webpage at: WoArch 2024 – (aiwac.eu)
Symposium description:
For almost 30 years, the literature investigating women and the built environment before the modern era has focused on women’s patronage of architecture. This symposium is designed to open a discussion about what is missing from this conversation yet can be found in the historical record: the roles that women of various social classes played in shaping architecture, landscapes, and cities in diverse parts of the world and the cultural and political implications of their activities. In part, the symposium calls for a re-interpretation of patronizing activities by women and, from another point of view, it directs the spotlight toward women engaging in socio-political urban reform, creating networks of design influence, managing, and participating in construction and serving as the designer of the built environment across a broad geographic scope before modern industrialization.
Conference organizers: Shelley E. Roff, Consuelo Lollobrigida, Francesca Riccardo
For program details and speakers’ abstracts, please visit our webpage. For other queries, please write shelley.roff@utsa.edu