Expanding Agency: Women, Race, and the Global Dissemination of Modern Architecture
| Principal Investigator: (opens in a new window)Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty Funding: European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant Project coordinator: (opens in a new window)Dr Theresa Shilling Postdoctoral fellows: (opens in a new window)Dr Alborz Dianat and Dr Ipek Mehmetoğlu Research assistant: Paula Arning Doctoral students: Pooja Sastry Website:(opens in a new window) https://expanding-agency.com This five-year project examines the role that women and ethnic minorities, including African Americans, had in the global dissemination of modern architecture and design between 1920 and 1970. It includes considerations of entrepreneurship, journalism, patronage, and philanthropy as pathways through which they exerted influence. |
James-Chakraborty’s monograph focuses on Ethel Power, Estrid Ericson, Ethel Furman, Chloethiel Woodard Smith, and Gira Sarabhai. She will also co-author a book with Bryan Clark Green and Katherine Kuenzli on the Belgian Building for the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair which was later re-erected at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. Other team members will address the way in which the shelter press and other general interest magazines marketed modernism to female consumers, in part through the writings of women journalists.
The project team includes project coordinator Dr Theresa Shilling, postdoctoral fellows Dr Alborz Dianat and Dr Ipek Mehmetoğlu, research assistant Paula Arning, and doctoral student Pooja Sastry. An (opens in a new window)international conference, Minding her Business: Women, Architecture, and Design, was held in June 2024. In 2026 an exhibition based on the results will tour architecture schools in Europe and the Global South.