Professor Alice Friedman named Fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians
Congratulations to Professor Alice Friedman, Grace Slack McNeil Professor of American Art. The Board of the Society of Architectural Historians named her a Fellow as part of the Class of 2020. From SAH: "The Board of Directors names as Fellows of the Society of Architectural Historians individuals who have distinguished themselves by a lifetime of significant contributions to the field. These contributions may include scholarship, service to the Society, teaching and stewardship of the built environment.
Professor Friemdan's citation was written by Kathryn O'Rourke '02, Associate Professor of Art & Art History at Trinity University:
“Hard questions mean incomplete answers and lots of research and thinking by groups of people working together, but there are often awkward silences, and sometimes even a price to be paid, professionally and personally, before better answers can be found.” Alice Friedman spoke these words in her SAH plenary address 10 years ago. Although she was talking about our discipline, her words illuminated her own extraordinary contributions to it.
For four decades Alice has shown us how to ask not only hard questions, but better questions—especially about how gender and sexuality have shaped the history of architecture, and about who has been left out of it. Combining meticulous archival research, broad readings in cultural history, and painstaking formal analysis, in numerous essays, and in three field-changing books, Alice asked questions about architects, and about clients and societies. Whether in analyses of Renaissance houses, glass houses, or houses of worship, she taught us to see architectural history as a consequence of decisions made by a larger and more diverse set of protagonists than we had ever imagined, and in the process revolutionized our understanding of canonical buildings.
For 40 years Alice has taught at Wellesley College, in the Department of Art and the Women’s Studies program, and she has held two chairs. Early in her career she founded Wellesley’s Architecture Program, which she long co-directed. In prestigious visiting professorships, numerous research groups, and in fellowships at institutions including Harvard and the American Academy in Rome, Alice has shared widely her legendary generosity as a mentor and interlocutor.
As a director of the SAH, Alice served our Society well, but as a pioneer in bringing feminism to architectural history, her even greater service lies in having helped transform our discipline, and thereby helping make the Society we know today—the SAH Affiliated Groups, and the SAH that is increasingly willing to ask difficult questions about whom and how it serves.
Relatively few people have the privilege of studying with Alice. But for those of us who do, the experience is life-changing. Through the Architecture Program at Wellesley, she has made the questions of architectural history central to the training of future architects, and helped ensure that the architectural history of the future includes more women.
Please join me in congratulating Alice Friedman as she is inducted as a Fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians.
Congratulations to Professor Friedman on this well earned honor. We're fortunate to have you in our department ushering the next generation of Architectural Historians.
