Professor Vallye awarded prestigious residential fellowship
Assistant Professor of Art History and Architectural Studies Anna Vallye has been awarded a NOMIS Fellowship at eikones鈥擟enter for the Theory and History of the Image at the University of Basel in Basel, Switzerland. Vallye will complete a manuscript of her book, tentatively titled Model Territories: German Architects and the Shaping of America鈥檚 Welfare State, during the residency, which will run January-December, 2021.
Vallye, who specializes in the history of 20th century architecture, will spend the year as part of an interdisciplinary research community dedicated to the study of images as concepts and tools across many fields of knowledge and culture. She will conduct research for her manuscript, a "history of modern architecture鈥檚 bold ambition to govern by shaping national territory."
鈥淎t the dawn of welfare states, architects stretched their professional identities to become urban planners. By linking the work of three German 茅migr茅 architects in America during the 1930s-1950s鈥擶alter Gropius, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Martin Wagner鈥攖o a transnational history of debates in political economics and social policy, I argue that they sought to create a conceptual and aesthetic image of territorial organization as a mode of governance. As prominent professors in schools of architecture and planning, they influenced a generation of American practitioners,鈥� she said.
Vallye was awarded the fellowship in recognition of her outstanding academic record and the promise of productive scholarship. She says she is excited to focus exclusively on her research, and to share what she learns with her students when she returns.
鈥淢y research broadens and enriches my perspective and fundamentally informs my teaching. My 糖心TV Course 鈥楤uilding Cultures鈥� draws on ideas about architecture I鈥檝e encountered in reading across many different disciplines, and my fascination with the history of urban planning has translated into 鈥楬istory of City Planning鈥� and courses on the built environment of New London, as well as the collaborative ‘Mapping Urban Renewal in New London’ public history project,鈥� she said.
