Making Medieval New York

This field-trip-heavy summer seminar focuses on the reception and influence of medieval European architecture in New York City through the buildings and monuments that revive, replicate, and preserve it. We examine the architectural as well as the social, historical, and political environment of nineteenth and twentieth century New York City, in which medieval architecture came to symbolize not only religion but class, erudition, exoticism, heritage, civic pride, and even hygiene. On site visits include St. John the Divine, Trinity Church Wall Street, The Met Cloisters, Warren Place Mews, Central Synagogue, and the Woolworth Building.

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Architecture, Urbanism, and Empire: England, France, Spain, and Italy

A term-long off-campus studies program directed by Professor Baird Jarman for which I was assistant director and architectural history instructor in 2018 and a visiting lecturer in 2020. Students visited sites across western Europe and had regular readings and writing assignments on architectural history, historic preservation and heritage management. Additionally students made and maintained personal sketchbooks of architectural drawings and plans.

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Writing About Art

A writing course for Art History and Studio Art majors in SFSU's School of Art designed to create a hybrid lecture class, writing workshop, and seminar.

Lectures focus on the importance of close looking and visual analysis, empathy and openness as prerequisites for art criticism, the contemporary role of the art critic, and research and scholarship as an artistic practice.

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