3 minute read
Penn’s Humanities, Urbanism, and Design (H+U+D) Initiative
The Penn Humanities, Urbanism, and Design (H+U+D) Initiative, funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, continued to bridge the divide between the humanities and design disciplines in the study of cities. For the seventh year, Penn IUR provided administrative and programmatic support for the initiative.
Penn IUR Co-Director Eugénie Birch and Penn IUR Faculty Fellow David Brownlee, Frances Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor, History of Art, Penn School of Arts & Sciences, have co-directed the initiative since its inception. Alisa Chiles, a PhD candidate in the History of Art, manages the project.
A signature component of the initiative is the H+U+D colloquium, a group of 15 scholars from both design and humanities disciplines across the university who meet bi-weekly to share research, foster collaboration, and build relationships. Colloquium members in 2019–20 included:
DANIEL BARBER Associate Professor and Chair, Architecture, Weitzman School of Design
RITA BARNARD Professor, English, School of Arts & Sciences
DAVID BARNES Associate Professor, History and Sociology of Science, School of Arts & Sciences
MIA BAY Roy F. and Jeanette P. Nichols Professor of American History, School of Arts & Sciences
HERMAN BEAVERS Professor, English and Africana Studies, School of Arts and Sciences
DAVID HARTT Assistant Professor, Fine Arts, Weitzman School of Design
SOPHIE HOCHHÄUSL Assistant Professor, Architecture, Weitzman School of Design
ZHONGJIE LIN Associate Professor, City and Regional Planning, Weitzman School of Design
MICHELLE LOPEZ Assistant Professor, Fine Arts, Weitzman School of Design
KEN LUM Professor and Chair, Fine Arts, Weitzman School of Design
JENNIFER PONCE de LÉON Assistant Professor, English, School of Arts and Sciences
VINCENT REINA Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning, Weitzman School of Design
SIMON RICHTER Professor, Germanic Languages and Literatures, School of Arts and Sciences
FRANCA TRUBIANO Associate Professor, Architecture, Weitzman School of Design Research
MANTHA ZARMAKOUPI Assistant Professor, History of Art, School of Arts and Sciences
Another signature element of the initiative is its support of crossdisciplinary education: H+U+D sponsors courses, awards research funding, and underwrites fellowships and student colloquia. This year, the H+U+D Initiative launched the Andrew W. Mellon Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. Two PhD candidates—German Pallares (Architecture, Weitzman School of Design) and Jason Chernesky (History and Sociology of Science, School of Arts & Sciences)—joined H+U+D for the year, attending and participating in the faculty colloquium.
Additionally, five undergraduates received Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellowships and participated in the newly created Mellon Undergraduate Research Colloquium, for which Birch and Simon Richter, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Penn School of Arts & Sciences, served as faculty mentors. Six graduate students also received research award funding for 2019–20. The graduate and undergraduate awardees presented their research at a H+U+D faculty colloquium in January 2020.
In Fall 2019, H+U+D sponsored three courses: a multi-disciplinary undergraduate course on the European and American city in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries that emphasized the history
LEFT: photo by A. Ricketts for Visit Philadelphia®.
of architecture and urban design; a graduate seminar on modern architectural theory as it relates to urbanism; and an undergraduate city seminar examining historical and modern-day Chinatowns. In Spring 2020, H+U+D sponsored undergraduate city seminars on the making of modern Paris and on Philadelphia’s jazz community, taught in partnership with the African American Museum of Philadelphia. Although a planned field trip to Paris had to be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Spring 2020 H+U+D-sponsored courses continued virtually for the last two months of the semester.
H+U+D is a joint project with the Weitzman School and the School of Arts & Sciences, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to foster critical and integrative considerations of the relationship between the humanities and the design professions in the analysis and shaping of the built environment. Following the successful completion of the project’s first five-year period, Mellon renewed the grant for a second five-year period beginning in 2018. Under the renewed grant, the initiative takes “The Inclusive City: Past, Present, and Future” as its theme, focusing on issues of inclusivity and diversity. For more information on the initiative and its programs visit humanitiesurbanismdesign.com .
Penn IUR People
Penn IUR’s academic and professional networks
promote exploration of urban issues across disciplines
and sectors while its advisory boards help shape its
programs and initiatives. Penn IUR honors the many
experts who collaborate with Penn IUR on research
and programming through six honorific categories:
Faculty Fellows, Scholars, Emerging Scholars, Fellows,
Visiting Scholars, and Affiliated Doctoral Students.
Through these networks, Penn IUR aims to foster an
environment that encourages cross-disciplinary
connections and nurtures a collaborative spirit across
the University and beyond.
