Welcome!
Since 2005 I have been working towards a Ph.D. in art history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. My areas of expertise are modern architecture (1750 to present), nineteenth-century American art, and Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture. I also have a growing interest in Mesoamerican architecture and ancient and medieval urbanism worldwide. I am now researching and writing my dissertation, titled "Apotheosis of the Public Realm: Classicism in New York City's Architecture," which will be completed in the summer of 2012.
I hold a bachelor's degree in architecture with a minor in peace studies from the University of Notre Dame, and a master's degree in architectural history from the University of Virginia. During my second year at UVa, I lived in Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village, at 17 West Range, near the Edgar Allan Poe room.
Born in Chicago and raised in Hammond, Indiana, my interests in architecture, cities, and the history of art were formed by the unique, if troubled, environment of "The Region" and the Chicago metropolitan area. During my third year of study at the University of Notre Dame, I lived in Rome, Italy, an experience which helped to inculcate deeper and richer understandings of the complexities of urbanism, history, and artistic traditions. Along with my formal education, these lived experiences have shaped my interests in urban life and modern society and have provided me with a unique perspective from which to study the history of art and architecture. My academic work explores the ways in which architecture, urban design, the preservation of historic environments, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American art reflect and have helped shape the distinctive political and intellectual aspirations of modern society. I view architecture, city-building, and the other public arts as ethical practices and I see the discipline of art and architectural history as a means to evaluate the successes, failures, and promise of these practices.
I can also be found at academia.edu, York College, and Architecture/Cosmopolis.
My book catalog at LibraryThing.com
My amazon.com storefront