Despina Stratigakos (born 1963) is a Canadian-born architectural

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

, writer, former vice provost, and professor of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

Education

Stratigakos was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, and received her undergraduate education from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and her Master of Arts from the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. She earned her Ph.D. from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

. She taught at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

before joining the School of Architecture and Planning at the

Academic career

From 2018-22, Stratigakos served as the University at Buffalo's Vice Provost of Inclusive Excellence. Stratigakos previously served as a Director of the

Society of Architectural Historians The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) is an international not-for-profit organization that promotes the study and preservation of the built environment worldwide. Based in Chicago in the United States, the Society's 3,500 members include ...

, an Advisor of the International Archive of Women in Architecture at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

, a Trustee of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, and Deputy Director of the Gender Institute at the

. She also participated on Buffalo's municipal Diversity in Architecture task force and was a founding member of the Architecture and Design Academy, an initiative of the Buffalo Public Schools to encourage design literacy and academic excellence. In 2016–17, Stratigakos was a member of the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

in Princeton.

Publications

Stratigakos' books explore the intersections of power and architecture. ''Hitler’s Northern Utopia: Building the New Order in Occupied Norway'' (2020) recounts how architects and planners envisioned and began to build a model “Aryan” society in Norway during World War II, winner of the Society of Architectural Historians 2022 Spiro Kostof Book Prize. ''Where Are the Women Architects?'' (2016) confronts the challenges women face in the architectural profession. ''Hitler at Home'' (2015) investigates the architectural and ideological construction of the Führer's domesticity. ''A Women’s Berlin: Building the Modern City'' (2008) traces the history of a forgotten female metropolis. This book won the

German Studies Association The German Studies Association (GSA) is an international organization of scholars in history, literature, economics, cultural studies, and political science who study Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The organization began in 1976 as the Wester ...

DAAD Book Prize and the Milka Bliznakov Research Prize. Stratigakos's publications on the Third Reich have brought previously unknown histories to light, including the influential role of Gerdy Troost, Hitler's interior decorator. Stratigakos has published on the dangers of erasure of memory and normalization in writing about the Nazis. Stratigakos is an internationally recognized scholar of diversity and equity in architecture. She has published widely on issues of diversity in architecture. Her 2013 ''Places Journal'' article, "Unforgetting Women Architects," on the neglect of women architects in history books and the need to include them in Wikipedia inspired the emergence of Wikipedia edit-a-thons focused on women in design. Stratigakos has also written about the lack of diversity in representations of architects in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

films as well as among architecture's elite prize winners. In 2007 she curated an exhibition on Architect Barbie at the

to focus attention on gendered stereotypes within the architectural profession. In 2011, she collaborated with

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

on the development and launch of Architect Barbie in the Barbie I Can Be series.

Honors and awards

*Spiro Kostof Book Prize. 2022 *Member, Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton *Marie Curie Fellowship *Rice University, Humanities Research Center Visiting Scholar *Walter B. Sanders Fellow, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan *

DAAD Book Prize, 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratigakos, Despina 1963 births Living people Writers from Montreal Architectural historians Gender studies academics Feminist theorists Architecture educators Canadian architecture writers Canadian women non-fiction writers University at Buffalo faculty University of Toronto alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Bryn Mawr College alumni University of Michigan faculty