WOMEN WHO LEAD PHILADELPHIA’S SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE RASHIDA NG AND ULRIKE ALTENMÜLLER-LEWIS BY FRANCA TRUBIANO PhD., OAQ. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, WEITZMAN SCHOOL OF DESIGN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
It has been an exceptional time in the recent history of architectural education in Philadelphia. Women are at the helm of all four of the city’s accredited schools of architecture. At Jefferson, students in the College of Architec-
ture and the Built Environment are led by Dean Barbara Klinkhammer, while students in the Department of Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design are headed by Chair Winka Dubbledam. They are joined by Rashida Ng, who most recently completed a six-year tenure as Chair of Architecture and Environmental Design at Temple University, and Ulrike Altenmüller-Lewis, the Architecture Program Director in the Department of Architecture, Design & Urbanism at Drexel University. Not only is this level of all-female leadership historically unprecedented, it also heralds the arrival of a new spirit of engaged critique of the discipline and profession. As expected, changes in leadership occasion changes in perspective. It is not entirely surprising, therefore, that these leaders have initiated serious and timely challenges to how schools of architecture are administered and governed, to how and what they teach, and to the larger question of diversity amongst the student body and faculty. The following essay collects two reflections on the subject solicited by Context Issue co-editor Franca Trubiano from Associate Professors Rashida Ng and Ulrike Altenmüller-Lewis.
32 FALL 2021 | context | AIA Philadelphia
