Kathryn O'Rourke
Grace Slack McNeil Professor in American Art and Professor of Art
I am a historian of architecture with expertise in the modern architectural and urban history of the Americas. Much of my research focuses on the intellectual and cultural histories of architecture and on the relationships between architecture and the other arts. I am also interested in the ways imagined and real geographical and cultural differences have shaped the theorization and historiography of modern architecture, particularly as it concerns Latin America and the US southwest.
My current book project, Archaism and Liberalism in Modern Architecture, uses case studies of buildings in Uruguay, Brazil, the US, Israel, Japan, and three European countries to analyze formal archaism in mid-twentieth-century architecture. It considers architectural evocations of remote pasts and the dynamics of estrangement in relation to architects’ and clients’ engagements with liberalism as it was reconceived and redeployed before and after World War II.
My earlier books are Modern Architecture in Mexico City: History, Representation, and the Shaping of a Capital (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016), which received the Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians; Home, Heat, Money, God: Texas and Modern Architecture (University of Texas Press, 2024); and, as editor, O’Neil Ford on Architecture (University of Texas Press, 2019). Other publications include essays on topics in Mexican architectural history and muralism, and the architecture of Texas. My scholarship has been recognized with awards and grants from institutions including the Mellon Foundation, the Graham Foundation, and the Texas Institute of Letters.
Prior to coming to Wellesley, I taught for fifteen years at Trinity University in San Antonio in the programs in art history and urban studies. At Wellesley, I direct the Architecture Program and teach courses on modern architectural history. My teaching is informed by my research and my interests in contemporary issues in landscape architecture, urban planning, and real estate development. I strive to help students connect their study of architectural history to the challenges and opportunities cities face today.
I have served on the executive committee of the Society of Architectural Historians, the State Board of Review of the Texas Historical Commission, the visiting committee on Latin American Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the board of Centro San Antonio.
Education
- B.A., Wellesley College
- M.A., University of Pennsylvania
- Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Current and upcoming courses
Modern Architecture
ARTH228
This course explores modern architecture from the turn of the 20th-century to the present. What makes architecture “modern”? We will consider fluid definitions of modernism and modernity when studying the built environment across cultures and geographic boundaries. Rather than following a linear narrative, we will approach modern architecture thematically by looking at topics that include urban planning, tall buildings, domesticity, race, gender, environmentalism and sustainability. A diverse range of architects, designers, and practitioners will be explored in the context of these themes.
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Seminar: The Modern Campus
ARTH305
Using collegiate and corporate campuses as case studies, this seminar examines the intersections of architecture, urban planning, landscape design, and institutionalism in private and public contexts in the modern period. We will consider the ways architects and clients used campuses to define institutional character, often in response to political and social concerns that extended far beyond the campus edge. While the course will emphasize examples in the Americas, case studies from outside the region will be included, and special attention will be devoted to the Wellesley campus.