Architectural and art historians, architects, preservationists and museum professionals from around the world will meet in Providence, R.I., April 24–28, 2019, for the 72nd Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians. Over 600 SAH members will convene at the Rhode Island Convention Center to share new research on the history of the built environment and address current issues in the field in paper sessions, roundtables, workshops, and panel discussions.
The local community is invited to participate in the conference through architecture tours and public events that include a workshop on place-based storytelling, a free seminar on urban renewal and infrastructure, and a closing night reception at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Conference attendees and the public will have the opportunity to experience the rich architectural heritage of Providence through 26 tours that explore College Hill and Brown University, local histories of LGBTQ and African-American communities, the work of H. H. Richardson and Ira Rakatansky, vernacular and industrial architecture, and the nearby cities of Newport and Bristol. (See the complete list of tours below).
Local artist Barnaby Evans, founder of WaterFire Providence, will deliver the conference’s Introductory Address, and distinguished architectural historian Joan Ockman will give the inaugural Eduard F. Sekler Talk, “On the Future History of Modern Architecture.” The conference’s thirty-eight paper sessions will cover a wide array of topics and time periods and include “Agora to WaterFire: Landscape Histories in the Public Realm” and “Coastal Trade, World Trade: The Port Cities of Narragansett Bay.” (See the complete list of sessions below). Following a reception at the Providence Arts Club, the Society will recognize the achievements of its members and present the SAH Publication Awards and the SAH Award for Film and Video during its annual awards ceremony at First Baptist Church.
Visit sah.org/2019 to register and to view the full conference program. Early registration is open through February 19. Registration for tours and events will open to the public on February 20.
CONFERENCE DETAILS
SAH 72nd Annual International Conference
Dates: April 24–28, 2019
Location: Rhode Island Convention Center, 1 Sabin St., Providence, RI 02903
Conference Hotel: Omni Providence, 1 West Exchange St. Providence RI 02903
Website: sah.org/2019
Hashtag: #SAH2019
Conference Chair: SAH First Vice President Victoria Young, University of St. Thomas
Local Co-Chairs: Dietrich Neumann and Itohan Osayimwese, Brown University
PAPER SESSIONS
PS01 Infrastructure: Global Perspectives from Architectural History
PS02 The Sound of Architecture: Acoustic Atmospheres in Place
PS03 Indoor Climate Change
PS04 Historicizing Race and Urban Space in Latin American Cities
PS05 Open Session
PS06 Architecture and Medieval Cultures of Containment
PS07 The Untold Histories of Peripheral Architecture and Cities
PS08 Sites of Loss, Sites of Grief, Sites of Mourning
PS09 Space, Time and the Architectural Treatise
PS10 Mobs and Microbes: Market Halls, Civic Order and Public Health
PS11 The Historiography of the Present Condition
PS12 Fishing Architecture
PS13 Architecture Fallout from Moral Failure
PS14 Coastal Trade, World Trade: The Port Cities of Narragansett Bay
PS15 Pre-Construction
PS16 Land, Air, Sea: Environment during the Early Modern Period
PS17 Open Session
PS18 Architecture and Cultural Identity: Materializing Asian America
PS19 Architectural Drawings as Artifact and Evidence
PS20 The Spatial, Visual and Social Effects of Surface in Architecture
PS21 Fantasies of Aristocracy: England the American Renaissance
PS22 Faith in the City
PS23 Marginal Landscapes
PS24 Issues of Indigenous Architectures in North America
PS25 Spaces of Oppression: Creating a History that Fosters Tolerance
PS26 The Geopolitical Aesthetics of Postmodernism
PS27 Crossing Borders through Chinese Architecture
PS28 Yours, Mine, Ours: Multi-use Spaces in the Middle Ages
PS29 Knowledge and Power: The Politics of the Architecture Museum
PS30 Architecture and Copyright
PS31 Graduate Student Lightning Talks
PS32 Open Session
PS33 Remembering Vincent Scully
PS34 Transatlantic Encounters: Africa and the Americas
PS35 State of Emergency: Architecture, Urbanism, and World War One
PS36 Agora to WaterFire: Landscape Histories of the Public Realm
PS37 Who did What? Thoughts on Gilded Age Collaborators
PS38 Open Session
CONFERENCE TOURS
TR01 Sunrise on the Riverwalk
TR02 Roger Williams in God’s Providence
TR03 Sunrise on the Riverwalk
TR04 The Crest of College Hill
TR05 Social Class and Religion in Stained Glass
TR06 LGBTQ Providence Walking Tour
TR07 Sunrise on the Riverwalk
TR08 Adaptive Reuse on College Hill
TR09 Before Antoinette: African-American Sites along Benefit Street
TR10 The Stones of Providence
TR11 Sunrise on the Riverwalk
TR12 The Architecture of Industry
TR13 Benefit Street
TR14 Bristol’s Architectural Legacy
TR15 Gilded Age Newport in Color
TR16 Ira Rakatansky: Mid-century Modern in Providence
TR17 Rhode Island Vernacular: From the Stone-Ender to the Square Plan House
TR18 Brown University: An Architectural Tour
TR19 Parkitecture: The Built Environment of Roger Williams Park, 19th Century to the Present
TR20 Women Designers in Rhode Island
TR21 H.H. Richardson and North Easton, Massachusetts
TR22 Cape Cod Modern House Trust Tour
TR23 Complexities and Contradictions of 20th-Century Architecture in New England
TR24 Eighteenth-Century Newport
TR25 Great Spaces: Architectural Landmarks of 19th Century Newport
TR26 Seaside Resort Architecture at Watch Hill
CONFERENCE SPONSORS
(Confirmed as of January 8, 2019) Benefactor Sponsor: Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative; Patron Sponsors: The 1772 Foundation and Gill Family Foundation; Donor Sponsors: Brown University, Urban Studies Program; Vincent J. Buonanno; and Hope Foundation; Supporter Sponsors: Brown University, Department of History of Art and Architecture; Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau; Roger Williams University, School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation; The Public Archaeology Lab, Inc.; and Mary Patricia May Sekler.