Faculty Voices: Diversifying our Curriculum
Please consider joining this conversation by drafting a response to be published in the spring semester. Contact Fran Glazer for more information.
H-T: Architectural history is one of the cornerstones of architectural training and is critical for national architectural accreditation. However, traditional architectural history education has been heavily criticized for being Western-centric. European and American architecture have been the focus, with little consideration given to other parts of the world. The School of Architecture and Design (SoAD) took action a couple of years ago to update its history sequence to enact our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the study of architecture. By employing a global approach, we created new courses in which our diverse students learn about rich non-Western, indigenous and vernacular architectural traditions, in addition to Western architecture.
Now, our students study the architecture of major religions, such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. In addition, we built Canvas course shells to expedite the transition to these new history courses. These sites feature course materials, quizzes, assignments, and other supplementary videos. New instructors can use a duplicated Canvas course shell, which are fully equipped with quizzes, assignments, and other materials. Now, our students consistently learn about and discuss the architecture and urbanism of India, China, Africa, the Arab world, and other regions, as well as Europe and the Americas.
Jennifer: From my place within the curriculum, I’ve witnessed that General Education, and particularly the Humanities, have always provided a space for students from various majors to engage in an exchange of ideas about justice, creativity, community, and individuality in courses such as the Interdisciplinary Seminars. Humanists in the last half-century have received training that responds to the call from social justice movements, including feminism, postcolonialism, and civil rights. Disciplines like literary criticism, history, and philosophy have evolved to move underrepresented voices “from the margin to the center,” as the late bell hooks titled a key book in this area.
However, we need to revisit our understanding of diverse perspectives regularly because students change, our disciplines evolve, and our thinking about issues related to diversity and inclusion continues to grow. The way we address “marginalization” or “monolithic” approaches requires ongoing inquiry and investigation, so we don’t reproduce the practices that we seek to challenge. Intersectionality, for example, adds complexity to feminism or other movements, intervening when these movements become dominated by the most privileged voices within them. Books like All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave, a foundational work in Black Women Studies co-edited by Akasha Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell-Scott, and Barbara Smith, address this issue. This questioning fits well with the critical thinking inherent in humanistic inquiry and viewpoint diversity. I’d be interested to learn more about your experience with these challenges, H-T, from a professional degree program perspective.
H-T: Like all of New York Tech, the SoAD has students from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, traditional architectural history education mainly focused on Europe and America, leaving many students of color and other minorities without the opportunity to learn about their architectural heritage. We aim to overcome these narrow regional and cultural boundaries and help our students approach the world's architecture with an open-minded. We hope our students study the architecture of Mali, India, Uzbekistan, and other non-Western countries with greater curiosity and passion. Course assignments often deal with buildings and sites in countries that are not particularly well-known.
We’ve observed that students are more engaged in class discussions and complete assignments more successfully when they work on tasks related to their cultural heritage. When students have drawing assignments, they often choose projects that relate to them or their families. Many students have shared stories about monumental buildings and sites from their homelands, passed down to them by their parents and grandparents. I see the positive impact that a more global architectural history education can have.
Jennifer: Yes, absolutely. And while we continue investing in creating curricula that reflect this diversity, it’s important to build structures that allow us to reflect and take inventory, so to speak. That’s what our new CPI plan aspires to do: it provides a way for us to evaluate where we are now and what we can do to meet this ongoing call for inclusion, with the goal of enhancing student engagement and sense of belonging as a continuous, dynamic practice.
Resources:
Contributors:
Jennifer Griffiths, Ph.D., Professor, Humanities
Hyun-Tae Jung, Ph.D. , Associate Professor, Architecture