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Architecture
Architecture September 19, 2022

A History of Solar Power Art and Design

Alex Nathanson

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Alex Nathanson's book A History of Solar Power Art and Design (Routledge, 2021) examines the history of creative applications of photovoltaic (PV) solar power, including sound art, wearable technology, public art …

Architecture

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Interviews with architects and scholars of architecture about their new books.

Geography September 16, 2022

Loving Orphaned Space

The Art and Science of Belonging to Earth

Mrill Ingram

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
How we relate to orphaned space matters. Voids, marginalia, empty spaces—from abandoned gas stations to polluted waterways—are created and maintained by politics, and often go unquestioned. In Loving Orphaned Space …
German Studies September 14, 2022

Sustainable Utopias

The Art and Politics of Hope in Germany

Jennifer L. Allen

Hosted by Paul Lerner
By most accounts, the twentieth century was not kind to utopian thought. The violence of two world wars, Cold War anxieties, and a widespread sense of crisis after the 197 …
Art September 12, 2022

Art After Liberalism

Nicholas Gamso

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Art After Liberalism (Columbia UP, 2022) is an account of creative practice at a moment of converging political and social rifts – a moment that could be described as a …
Architecture August 19, 2022

Spatial Revolution

Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union

Christina E. Crawford

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union (Cornell UP, 2022) is the first comparative parallel study of Soviet architecture and planning to create a narrative arc across …
German Studies August 16, 2022

Berlin Contemporary

Architecture and Politics After 1990

Julia Walker

Hosted by Lea Greenberg
For years following reunification, Berlin was the largest construction site in Europe, with striking new architecture proliferating throughout the city in the 1990s and early 2000s. Among the most visible …
Medicine August 9, 2022

Building Schools, Making Doctors

Architecture and the Modern American Physician

Katherine L. Carroll

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
In the late nineteenth century, medical educators intent on transforming American physicians into scientifically trained, elite professionals recognized the value of medical school design for their reform efforts. Between 189 …
Military History August 5, 2022

The Castle

A History

John Goodall

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In The Castle: A History (Yale University Press, 2022) Dr. John Goodall presents a vibrant history of the castle in Britain, from the early Middle Ages to the present day …
Architecture August 4, 2022

A Backyard Prairie

The Hidden Beauty of Tallgrass and Wildflowers

Fred Delcomyn and James L. Ellis

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
In 2003 Fred Delcomyn imagined his backyard of two and a half acres, farmed for corn and soybeans for generations, restored to tallgrass prairie. Over the next seventeen years, Delcomyn …
East Asian Studies July 26, 2022

Designing Reform

Architecture in the People's Republic of China, 1970-1992

Cole Roskam

Hosted by Ed Pulford
China’s urban landscapes are full of radically different architectural styles which memorialise different eras in the country’s political past, from the remains of imperial palaces or city walls, to Republican-era …
Architecture July 22, 2022

American Unitarian Churches

Architecture of a Democratic Religion

Ann Marie Borys

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
The Unitarian religious tradition was a product of the same eighteenth-century democratic ideals that fueled the American Revolution and informed the founding of the United States. Its liberal humanistic principles …
Architecture July 8, 2022

Formulations

Architecture, Mathematics, Culture

Andrew Witt

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
In Formulations: Architecture, Mathematics, Culture (MIT Press, 2022), Andrew Witt examines the visual, methodological, and cultural intersections between architecture and mathematics. The linkages Witt explores involve not the mystic transcendence …
On Religion June 28, 2022

On the Roman Catacombs

A Discussion with William Gruen

Willliam Gruen

Hosted by Gregory Soden
Ever wonder about the Roman catacombs? Look no further. Today I talked to William "Chip" Gruen of Muhlenberg College about his article "Roman Catacombs" from the collection The Reception of Jesus in the First …
Architecture June 7, 2022

The New Curator

Exhibiting Architecture and Design

Fleur Watson

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
The New Curator: Exhibiting Architecture and Design (Routledge, 2021) examines the challenges inherent in exhibiting design ideas. Traditionally, exhibitions of architecture and design have predominantly focused on displaying finished outcomes or communicating …
Urban Studies June 1, 2022

Reimagining Sustainable Cities

Strategies for Designing Greener, Healthier, More Equitable Communities

Stephen M. Wheeler and Christina D. Rosan

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
What would it take to make urban places greener, more affordable, more equitable, and healthier for everyone? In recent years, cities have stepped up efforts to address climate and sustainability …
Architecture May 20, 2022

Sixteenth Street NW

Washington, DC's Avenue of Ambitions

John DeFerrari and Douglas Peter Sefton

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Sixteenth Street NW in Washington, DC, has been called the Avenue of the Presidents, Executive Avenue, and the Avenue of Churches. From the front door of the White House, this …
Art April 20, 2022

The Invention of Norman Visual Culture

Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition

Lisa Reilly

Hosted by Tanja Tolar
In The Invention of Norman Visual Culture: Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition (Cambridge UP, 2020), Lisa Reilly establishes a new interpretive paradigm for the eleventh and twelfth-century art and architecture …
Architecture April 19, 2022

Architecture, State Modernism and Cultural Nationalism in the Apartheid Capital

Hilton Judin

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
Hilton Judin's book Architecture, State Modernism and Cultural Nationalism in the Apartheid Capital (Routledge, 2021) is the first comprehensive investigation of the architecture of the apartheid state in the period of …
Environmental Studies April 13, 2022

Wild by Design

The Rise of Ecological Restoration

Laura J. Martin

Hosted by Kathryn (Kate) Carpenter
Environmental restoration is a global pursuit and a major political concern. Governments, nonprofits, private corporations, and other institutions spend billions of dollars each year to remove invasive species, build wetlands …
General History April 1, 2022

Standing on Holy Ground in the Middle Ages

Lucy Donkin

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Dr. Lucy Donkin’s Standing on Holy Ground in the Middle Ages (Cornell University Press, 2022) illuminates how the floor surface shaped the ways in which people in Medieval Western Europe …