CFP: Modern Architecture in East Asia

Modern Architecture in East Asia: Regionalism/Transnationalism (Los Angeles, February 25-28, CAA 2009)

Chairs: Ken Tadashi Oshima, University of Washington, and Vimalin Rujivacharakul, University of Delaware

Send abstracts to koshima@u.washington.edu and vimalin@udel.edu.

Abstracts Due: May 9, 2008. For abstract submission guideline and CAA form, visit http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/CallforParticipation2009.pdf

OMA/Rem Koolhaas’s CCTV Headquarters (2002-8) is rising triumphantly against the backdrop of Beijing’s rapidly transforming skyline. Joining it on the other side of the city is the much-famed Olympic Stadium “Bird’s Nest” (2002-8) of Herzog and de Meuron. At the same time, Zaha Hadid’s design project for the Guangzhou Opera House (2003- ) is the architectural world’s “talk of the town” for its aesthetics and structural challenge. In Japan, Herzog and de Meuron’s Prada Building (2003), Jean Nouvel’s Dentsu Headquarters (1998-2002), and Renzo Piano’s Hermes Building (1998-2002) have all pushed the possibilities of glass to new heights, and Steven Holl’s Nexus World Housing in Fukuoka, Japan, transformed the trajectory of his own career. Meanwhile, architects such as Yung Ho Chang/Atelier FCJZ, Qingyun Ma/MADA s.p.a.m., and Hitoshi Abe/A-Slash are questioning the transformation of Asia through both their own designs and architectural education in the United States (MIT, USC, UCLA). The architectural boom in the past decade has inevitably shifted the field’s geographical concentration from Europe and North America to the Asian Pacific Rim.

This geo-architectural shift simultaneously raises significant theoretical questions about positioning East Asia in the global discourse of modern architecture. Is prospering East Asia the future, the other modern, or simply the land where famous architects deploy their most recent innovations? In a world of increasingly global practice, is architecture defined by the building location or designer’s identity? Should the new architecture in East Asia be identified as modern East Asian architecture, or the tag of regionalism be replaced with contemporary architecture in the age of transnationalism? Proposals on interdisciplinary, comparative aspects, either between geographical regions or between time-periods, are particularly welcome.

Vimalin Rujivacharakul, Ph.D.
Department of Art History
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
(during 2008: 8 Sylvester Road, Cambridge, CB3 9AF, England)
Email: vimalin@udel.edu

Postdoctoral Mellon Fellowship in History of South Asian Art and Architecture

The Art Department at Wellesley College invites applications for a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of the Art and Architecture of South Asia for the academic years 2008-9 and 2009-10. The fellow will teach one course in the spring of 2009 and one course in each semester of 2009-10. The Mellon Fellow will also participate in the activities of the Newhouse Center for the Humanities and in a seminar for new faculty, sponsored by
Wellesley’s Pforzheimer Learning and Teaching Center. The salary is $50,000 in 2008-9; the salary in 2009-10 will include a percentage increase to this base. Moving expenses for the fellow will be reimbursed up to $2,000. The Mellon Fellow is also eligible to apply for faculty research, travel, and pedagogical funds.

Fellows who opt to combine the first year of their fellowship with an appointment a the Newhouse Center will have their office at the Newhouse Center and will participate in the Newhouse Fellows program as well as in the life of the Art Department.

Requirements:
The applicant must have received his or her Ph.D. within the five years preceding the application deadline. Important criteria for the appointment are: evidence of outstanding scholarship, a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching, and a willingness to be a collegial member of the department and college community.

Contact and Application Information:
The applicant should send a letter of application describing his or her scholarly and pedagogical interests, a curriculum vitae, a writing sample, and three letters of recommendation to: Mellon Fellowship Search Committee, Art Department, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481. Application review will begin on January 21, 2008 and continue until the
search is completed.

Wellesley is a women’s college and a leading undergraduate, liberal arts college. The Art Department includes majors in Art History, Architecture, Studio Arts, Media Arts and Sciences, and enjoys exchange programs with MIT, Brandeis University, and the Olin College of Engineering.

Wellesley is an EO/AA education institutional and employer. The College is committed to increasing the diversity of the College community and the curriculum. Candidates who believe they can contribute to that goal are encouraged to apply. For more information about being a faculty member at Wellesley please see:

http://www.wellesley.edu/DeanCollege/Diversity/Open_pos/prospectfac.pdf .