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Kathleen James-Chakraborty

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Kathleen James-Chakraborty
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania
Yale University
Employer(s)University of Minnesota
University of California, Berkeley
Technical University of Dortmund
University College Dublin

Kathleen James-Chakraborty is a Professor of Art History and Architectural Historian at University College Dublin. She is an expert in American and German modernism, and is interested in modern sacred architecture. In 2018 She was awarded the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Humanities.[1][2]

Early life and education

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James-Chakraborty grew up in Chestertown on the Eastern Shore region of Maryland.[3] In 1966 she attended Chestertown Elementary, where she was in the first year of desegregation.[4] She spent three semester at a boarding school in New England, where she spent time in a library designed by Louis Kahn.[5] She remained friends with her elementary school teacher, Mrs Wilson, until her death at the age of ninety-one.[4] She earned her bachelor's degree at Yale University in 1982.[6] She earned an MA and PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 1990.[7] She moved to the University of Minnesota School of Architecture as an Assistant Professor.

Research and career

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She served as the Gambrinus Fellow at the Technical University of Dortmund.[8] She became an assistant professor of Architecture at University of California, Berkeley in 1992, a tenured Associate Professor in 1997, and a full professor in 2006.[9] James-Chakraborty was appointed Professor of Art History at University College Dublin in 2007.[9] She was Head of the School of Art History from 2007 to 2010. She spent the fall semester in 2015 and 2016 at Yale School of Architecture.[10][11]

Her work considers modern art, modernism and nationalism. She has extended the received perspectives of German modernism.[9] James-Chakraborty has investigated the role of women in architecture and design.[12][13] She also studied the Ruhrgebiet and recent German architecture.[14] In 2016 she arranged the European Architectural History Network, which was held in Dublin Castle.[7] Her 2017 book Architecture since 1400 was a global survey of architecture, described by Murray Fraser as a "scintillating overview".[15]

While others have characterized contemporary Berlin’s museums and memorials as postmodern, Kathleen James-Chakraborty argues that these environments are examples of an “architecture of modern memory” that is much older, more complex, and historically contingent. She reveals that churches and museums repaired and designed before 1989 in Düren, Hanover, Munich, Neviges, Pforzheim, Stuttgart, and Weil am Rhein contributed to a modernist precedent for the relationship between German identity and the past developed since then in the Ruhr region and in Berlin.[16]

She helped organise the 2019 National Gallery of Ireland conference Bauhaus Effects.[17] She served from 2016-2021 on the board of the National Museum of Ireland.[18]

Professor James-Chakraborty has criticised Ireland's obsession with university rankings, particularly QS rankings and the way in which this skews the allocation of resources.[19]

Awards and honours

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Publications

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  • Jefferies, Matthew (1 January 1998). "Erich Mendelsohn and the Architecture of German Modernism". Journal of Design History. 11 (2): 186–187. doi:10.1093/jdh/11.2.186. ISSN 0952-4649.
  • "On the Spirit of the Age". Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time. Routledge. 5 July 2017. pp. 1–37. doi:10.4324/9781315128245-1. ISBN 9781315128245.
  • James-Chakraborty, Kathleen (6 September 2002). German Architecture for a Mass Audience. doi:10.4324/9780203449448. ISBN 9780203449448.
  • James-Chakraborty, Kathleen (2006). Bauhaus Culture: From Weimar to the Cold War. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816646876.
  • James-Chakraborty, Kathleen, ed. (5 July 2017). India in Art in Ireland. Routledge. ISBN 9781315092744.
  • James-Chakraborty, Kathleen (1 January 2014). Architecture since 1400. University of Minnesota Press. doi:10.5749/minnesota/9780816673964.001.0001. ISBN 9780816673964.
  • "Introduction", Modernism as Memory, University of Minnesota Press, pp. 1–12, 2018, doi:10.5749/j.ctt1pwt7w6.3, ISBN 9781452956251
  • Conclusion The Kolumba Museum in Cologne, Modernism as Memory : Building Identity in the Federal Republic of Germany. :237-244

References

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  1. ^ a b "Kathleen James-Chakraborty Receives RIA Gold Medal for Humanities". www.sah.org. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  2. ^ a b Kevin O'Sullivan. "Gold medals for stars of research in Ireland". The Irish Times. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  3. ^ James-Chakraborty, Kathleen (2014). "House 103". Room One Thousand. 2 (2). ISSN 2328-4161.
  4. ^ a b Spy Desk. "50th Anniversary of the Desegregation Eastern Shore Schools by Kathleen James-Chakraborty". The Talbot Spy. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  5. ^ "Kathleen James-Chakraborty | Irish Humanities Alliance". www.irishhumanities.com. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  6. ^ McCoole, Veena (2016). "Women's issues progress at architecture school". yaledailynews.com. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  7. ^ a b "Kathleen James-Chakraborty Profile | University College Dublin". people.ucd.ie. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  8. ^ "Prof. Dr. Kathleen James-Chakraborty". CCSA (in German). Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  9. ^ a b c College, Taubman (17 November 2010), Kathleen James-Chakraborty, University College Dublin, retrieved 17 February 2019
  10. ^ "Kathleen James-Chakraborty – UCD Clinton Institute". Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  11. ^ "Centerbrook Architects and Planners > Chakraborty to Take Lecture Series Stage". centerbrook.com. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  12. ^ "Expanding the Canon: Making Room for Other Voices". Yale Architecture. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  13. ^ "Expanding the Canon: Women in Architecture | MIT Architecture". architecture.mit.edu. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  14. ^ "Kathleen James-Chakraborty, "Remembering Modernism in Germany: Berlin versus the Ruhrgebiet" | Penn History of Art". www.sas.upenn.edu. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  15. ^ Fraser, Murray (12 July 2016). "Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Architecture Since 1400 . Minneapolis, London: Minnesota University Press, 2014". ABE Journal (9–10). doi:10.4000/abe.10990. ISSN 2275-6639.
  16. ^ James-Chakraborty, Kathleen (2018). Modernism as Memory: Building Identity in the Federal Republic of Germany. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9781452956251.
  17. ^ UCD College of Arts and Humanities (13 February 2019), Dr Kathleen James Chakraborty Bauhaus Effects 2019, retrieved 17 February 2019
  18. ^ Hilliard, Mark. "National Museum of Ireland board appointed". The Irish Times. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  19. ^ "Universities and the QS rankings". The Irish Times. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  20. ^ "Kathleen James-Chakraborty". Royal Irish Academy. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
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