Method Acts is an annual series showcasing innovative research methods used by graduate students and emerging scholars in architectural history and adjacent fields. Organized by the Society of Architectural Historians Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC), it aims to create a space for sharing, discussing, and refining methodological approaches to interpreting built environment and material culture histories.
Research methods are political. The scope, subject, mode of address, accessibility of evidence, and the researcher’s perspective all condition our encounters with archives and the objects we study. As architectural historians in the early phases of our careers, we have the opportunity to orient our research toward emerging and critical frameworks for engaging with historical evidence.
Questions this series hopes to address include: How does one engage with inaccessible or non-existent archives? What are the challenges and potential limits in developing an inclusive global architectural historical narrative? As architectural history continues to realign with research methods that engage the populace, activism, and modes of decolonization, we seek opportunities that continue to shape inclusive disciplinary fields.
Through this series, we will discuss how to confront questions of methodology head-on and consider how our interpretive frameworks might expand architectural historiography and its disciplinary boundaries. By rethinking how we relate to our disciplinary frameworks and each other when discussing scholarship, we aim to provide a platform for emerging scholars to discuss alternative research methods. Thus, we encourage submissions from scholars implementing alternative and “nontraditional” methods in their work and methods that reconsider traditional disciplinary boundaries and narratives.
Open Call for Participation in 2025 Program
Workshops: The participants and intended audience for these workshops are emerging ABD scholars and scholars 1–3 years after graduation from a PhD program. We encourage submissions of in-process ideas, experimental approaches, and not-yet-developed frameworks that can benefit from critical engagement among peers. Each workshop will last approximately 75 minutes and begin with 2 or 3 presentations by doctoral candidates and emerging scholars about their chosen research methods. Approximately ten minutes each, these presentations should include a brief overview of their research topic, followed by an elaborate discussion of their methods. We will host an open discussion for approximately 45 minutes following the presentations.
Speakers are expected to share their material with other speakers and workshop participants beforehand to help facilitate discussion. The presentations will take place in English on Zoom. Although not required to apply, selected presenters of the workshops are required to be current SAH members by the time of the workshops.
Roundtable: Following the workshops, the committee will convene a concluding roundtable where invited scholars known for their research in the field will share their perspectives on methodology. This third event in the series will highlight how methods are implemented as a body of scholarly work advances throughout one’s career.
Submission Requirements:
- 100–150-word statement in Word or PDF format describing a method you are currently using in your research
- Current CV (2 pages max)
Submit here. You will be prompted to log in to the SAH online portal. Please create a free account if this is your first time submitting to SAH.
Timeline:
- September 18, 2024: Submission period opens
- November 24, 2024, 11:59pm CDT: Deadline for submissions
- November 25 - December 8, 2024: Submission review by committee
- December 9 - December 13, 2024: Selection & invitation to participate
- February 2025: Preliminary discussion with presenters
- February - March 2025: Workshops and roundtable
If you have any questions, please reach out to Method Acts 2025 Chair and SAH Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) member Sylvia Faichney at sylvia_faichney@ucsb.edu. General inquiries regarding GSAC can be sent to sah.gsac@gmail.com. 
