Syllabi are theory's infrastructure. While they are not the same as the essays, lectures, books, case studies, films, and other media organized by them, they can and should be seen as theoretical contributions in their own right, and subjected to the same degree of critical reflection, scrutiny, and innovation. Syllabi set a program for study, give structure to vast networks of ideas, and define an interpretative stance on the world. Focusing our attention on syllabi-which texts they include, and how they are organized and framed-offers a window into larger problems facing the field of architecture theory today. A focus on syllabi suggests that pedagogy is not secondary to theory, but that rethinking how we teach and learn theory might be central to how we theorize anew.
Editors
Nick Axel
Joseph Bedford
Nikolaus Hirsch
Theory's Curriculum, a project by e-flux Architecture and Joseph Bedford, is produced with the support of the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative; Virginia Tech Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, College of Architecture and Urban Studies, and School of Architecture + Design; School of Architecture, Syracuse University; John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto; Department of Architecture, Wentworth Institute of Technology; and Department of Architecture, Iowa State University College of Design. Special support for the project in its initiation, fundraising, and guidance was provided by Joseph Godlewski.
Matthew Allen is a PhD candidate in the History and Theory of Architecture at Harvard University and a Lecturer at the University of Toronto. His dissertation describes how concepts and techniques from abstract art and concrete poetry made their way into architecture through computer programming in the 1960s and how the diffused in the following decades.
Joseph Bedford is Assistant Professor of History and Theory at Virginia Tech. He holds a PhD from Princeton University, degrees from Cambridge University and the Cooper Union, and is the founding editor of Attention: The Audio Journal for Architecture and The Architecture Exchange, a platform for theoretical exchange in architecture.
Elisa Dainese is Assistant Professor of Architecture at Dalhousie University. She works on issues of decolonization and postcolonial theory, global history, modernism, and architectural design with a focus on the transoceanic exchanges across Africa, Europe and the Americas. She holds a PhD from the IUAV, Italy.
Gabriel Fuentes is an Assistant Professor at Marywood University where, in addition to teaching architectural design studios, he coordinates the history and theory curriculum. In 2010, he founded New York City based Design Action Studio for Research, Architecture + Urbanism (DA | S).
Antonio Furgiuele is an Associate Professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology whose research focuses on the histories and theories of information and communication technology. His recent project, “Architectures of the Cloud,” investigates cloud computing systems and the social and disciplinary changes they propel in the Information Age.
Joseph Godlewski is an Assistant Professor at the Syracuse University School of Architecture. He holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. His recent textbook, Introduction to Architecture: Global Disciplinary Knowledge seeks to expand the repertoire of conventional architectural theory anthologies.
Jeremy Lecomte is Assistant Professor at École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles, as well as Guest Faculty at SCI-Arc, Los Angeles, at the Bartlett, University College London, and at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture Paris Malaquais. He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester and is a founding member and editor of Glass Bead, an art and theory journal concerned with transfers of knowledge between different disciplines.
Jake Matatyaou is a designer, writer, and educator. He is a Lecturer at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design and a founding partner of JuneJuly, a research and design practice based in Los Angeles, CA, and Brooklyn, NY.
Ginger Nolan is an assistant professor of architectural theory at the University of Southern California. She holds a PhD in architectural history from Columbia University, in affiliation with the Institute of Comparative Literature and Society. Her work focuses on techno-aesthetics, media, and issues of race.
Bryan E. Norwood is an assistant professor of architecture at University of Michigan and a postdoctoral scholar in the Michigan Society of Fellows. His research focuses on architecture and building practices in the United States in the nineteenth century and, in particular, on the ways race, religion, and historical imagination shaped the architectural profession.
Ivonne Santoyo-Orozco is an architect, theorist and educator. She holds a PhD from the Architectural Association and a master degree from the Berlage Institute. She is Assistant Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University. Her current work investigates relationships between architecture, private property, and governance in Mexico.
Marrikka Trotter is an architectural historian and theorist whose research examines the historical intersections between geology, architecture, agriculture, and landscape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She is a full-time faculty member at SCI-Arc, where she coordinates the history and theory curriculum.
