U of A Rome Center to Host WoArch 2024 'Women as Builders, Designers, and Critics' Symposium

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The U of A Rome Center is hosting WoArch 2024, a symposium in collaboration with the School of Architecture + Planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The symposium, titled "Women as Builders, Designers, and Critics of the Built Environment Before 1800," is supported by the Women in Architecture Affiliate Group of the Society of Architectural Historians.

The symposium will be hosted Jan. 25-27, 2024, at the Rome Center in Palazzo Taverna, Rome. It will also livestream on the U of A Rome Center YouTube channel.

The three-day event will explore how the literature investigating women and the built environment before the modern era has focused on women's patronage of architecture for almost 30 years. 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 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 designers of the built environment across a broad geographic scope before modern industrialization.

Symposium events begin at 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 25, with a welcome and introduction from convenors Shelley E. Roff, Consuelo Lollobrigida and Francesca Riccardo.

Keynote speaker Anuradha Chatterjee, dean of the School of Design and Innovation, RV University in India, will give her "Remembering (and Forgetting) Ahilya Bai Holkar's Architectural Legacy" lecture on Friday, Jan. 26.

Throughout the symposium, a series of panels and discussions will occur. The overall themes for each day are as follows:

• Day 1: Women as Builders and Designers
  • Session 1: A Passion for Design
  • Session 2: Woman Building the City
• Day 2: Connecting Spheres of Influence
  • Session 3: Critical Agents of Transformation
  • Session 4: The Politics of Gender in Building
• Day 3: Matronage in a New Light
  • A roundtable discussion, presentations, debates and closing remarks with the convenors

About the Symposium Convenors

Shelley Roff, associate professor and architectural historian at the University of Texas at San Antonio, specializes in the art and architecture of medieval Spain. Her current research focuses on women engaged in architectural design, the building trades and construction labor in medieval and early modern Europe. She is the editor of a forthcoming volume, Women and the Built Environment Before 1800 (Routledge), and recent publications on women include Did Women Design or Build Before the Industrial Age? (Routledge, 2021) and Appropriate to Her Sex? Women's Participation on the Construction Site in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Palgrave, 2010).

Consuelo Lollobrigida, professor of art history at the U of A Rome Program, is the curator of the Annual International Women in the Arts Conference. She studied with Silvia Danesi Squarzina and Vera Fortunati, the founders of gender studies in art in Italy. She is an art historian with a master's degree and a doctoral degree in art history from Sapienza University of Rome. Her field of expertise is women artists and studies, museum studies, and Rome Renaissance and Baroque history and art. Since 2008 she has taken part in conferences and meetings all over the world on women artists in 17th and 18th century, such as: RSA, Feminist Art Conference, Jane Fortune Foundation and at many universities.

Francesca Riccardo, adjunct professor of architecture at the U of A Rome Center, has dealt with research and education in architecture, focusing on neighborhood regeneration and housing since 2006. She has been working at the U of A Rome Program since 2014. She teaches undergraduate and graduate students in design studios, architectural studies, visual journaling and history onsite analysis courses. She has a doctorate in architecture from the School of Architecture, Roma Tre University in Rome, Italy, and a masters in sustainable urban design with a background in architectural composition.

About the Keynote Speaker

Anuradha Chatterjee is an Indian-born Australian academic practitioner in architecture and design based in Australia and India. She has more than 20 years of experience in research, teaching and administration gained through academic positions in Australia (University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, University of Tasmania and University of South Australia), China (Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) and India (Manipal University Jaipur, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art Design and Technology, Pearl Academy and Sushant School of Architecture). Her focus has been on developing critical and research-based pedagogies in studio and history and theory subjects. She has held prominent academic leadership roles in India as dean, faculty of design, at Manipal University Jaipur; dean academics at Avani Institute of Design; and head of research and innovation at Pearl Academy.

She has an active and diverse research record, and her publications speak to an expansive field of research inquiry. Chatterjee is regional editor at Asia Pacific for TEXTILES: Cloth and Culture, a Registered Architect at the Council of Architecture in India and an Associate of Australian Institute of Architects.

Chatterjee's full bio can be found on RV University's website.

For more information and ongoing updates on WoArch 2024, visit the AIWAC website.