Erin Sassin
Associate Professor of History of Art & Architecture
esassin@middlebury.edu
work(802) 443-5830
Fall Term 2020-Via Zoom (please email Prof. Sassin for the link) on Thursdays from 4:30-5:30p.m., and by appointment.
Mahaney Arts Center 211
Erin Sassin received her PhD in the History of Architecture from Brown University in 2012. She joined the faculty at Middlebury College the same year and has been teaching courses such as “Faust's Metropolis” (art, architecture, and urbanism of Berlin), “Gender and the Making of Space,” “Bloom and Doom” (architecture and design in Vienna circa 1900—culminating in an exhibition at the Middlebury Museum of Art), “Architectural Utopias,” and a survey of Modern Architecture, among others.
Her research is closely linked to her teaching interests: she has published articles on the public/private world of middle class women in the German Empire and the intersection of architecture, power, and ethnicity in Upper Silesia. Her book, titled "Single People and Mass Housing in Germany and Beyond (1850-1930)—(No) Home Away from Home" is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Academic.
Awarded a 2019 fellowship from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, it is the first complete study of single-person mass housing in Germany and the pivotal role this class- and gender-specific building type played for pre-war German architectural culture and society, the transnational Progressive reform movement, and Architectural Modernism in the 1920s, as well as its continued relevance. She has presented her research at CAA, GSA, SAH, and VAF, among other forums.
Currently, she’s planning an exhibition on the Bauhaus at the Museum of Art, working with Sophie Hochhäusl (UPenn) on the feminist implications of ephemeral and ad-hoc architecture constructed during World War One, and collaborating with Florence Feiereisen (German Department) on a digital project involving the infamous Berlin tenement Meyershof, “Sounding Out the Spaces of Berlin’s Working-Class Life.” Though she has been working interdisciplinary for years, she’s particularly excited that research in the Digital Humanities explicitly fosters collaboration with people from outside of her own field.
Courses
Courses offered in the past four years.
▲ indicates offered in the current term
▹ indicates offered in the upcoming term[s]
ENVS 0700 - Senior Independent Study
Senior Independent Study
In this course, seniors complete an independent research or creative project on a topic pertinent to the relationship between humans and the environment. During the term prior to enrolling in ENVS 0700, a student must discuss and agree upon a project topic with a faculty advisor who is appointed in or affiliated with the Environmental Studies Program and submit a brief project proposal to the Director of Environmental Studies for Approval. The expectations and any associated final products will be defined in consultation with the faculty advisor. Students may enroll in ENVS 0700 as a one-term independent study OR up to twice as part of a multi-term project, including as a lead-up to ENVS 0701 (ES Senior Thesis) or ENVS 0703 (ES Senior Integrated Thesis). (Senior standing; Approval only)
Fall 2019
FYSE 1407 - Gender & the Making of Space ▲
Gender and the Making of Space
In this seminar we will investigate the complex relationship between gender and architecture, examining how the design of the built environment (buildings, urban spaces, etc.) can reinforce or undermine ideas about the respective roles of women and men in society, from the creation of masculine and feminine spaces to the gendered nature of the architectural profession. By looking at both visual evidence and textual sources, we will also uncover how the social construction of gender roles and gendered spaces are—and continue to be—inflected by race, class, and sexuality. CW HIS NOR
Fall 2016, Fall 2020
HARC 0230 - Modern Architecture
Modern Architecture
Rotating skyscrapers, green roofs, and avant-garde museums: how did we arrive in the architectural world of the early 21st century? In this course we will survey the major stylistic developments, new building types, and new technologies that have shaped European and American architecture since the late 18th century. Students will learn about the work of major architects as well as key architectural theories and debates. Special emphasis will be placed on the cultural and political contexts in which buildings are designed. 2 hrs. Lect./1 hr. disc. ART HIS
Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020
HARC 0329 - Nationalism and Identity
Nationalism and Identity in Central and Eastern European Art and Architecture
In this discussion based class our studies will take us from Berlin to Krakow, Budapest to Zakopane, exploring the history of Central and Eastern Europe from 1870 to 1945 through an examination of art and architecture. We will study how the rapid pace of industrialization and urbanization, burgeoning commodity culture, ethnic unrest, and nationalist movements destabilized Central and Eastern European society, resulting in new forms of art and architecture. We will take advantage of the opportunities offered by the exhibition, “Bloom and Doom: Visual Expression and Reform in Vienna 1900” (at our Middlebury College Museum of Art) to inform our discussion. ART EUR HIS
Fall 2016
HARC 0331 - Architectural Utopias
The Utopian Impulse in Architecture
In this seminar we will explore the impulse to create the world anew through urban planning and architecture. From St. Augustine to the New Urbanism, the imagining and building of utopian communities has played a central role in architectural thought. We will see that while some utopias were built (and generally failed), many were never meant to serve as real prescriptions for human progress, but instead functioned as critical devices that challenged the status quo (while remaining impossible dreams of a more perfect world). By the conclusion of this course you will see architectural utopias as nuanced and complex constructions, and will be able to confidently read, describe and analyze scholarly secondary and primary texts in the field of architectural history, as well as buildings and urban spaces. 3 hrs. sem. ART CW EUR HIS
Spring 2017
HARC 0338 / GSFS 0338 - Gender and the Making of Space
Gender and the Making of Space
In this course we will investigate the complex relationship between gender and architecture, examining how the design of the built environment (buildings, urban spaces, etc.) can reinforce or undermine ideas about the respective roles of women and men in society, from the creation of masculine and feminine spaces to the gendered nature of the architectural profession. By looking at both visual evidence and textual sources we will also uncover how the social construction of gender roles and gendered spaces are, and continue to be, inflected by race, class, and sexuality. Not open to students who have taken FYSE 1407. 3 hrs. sem. ART CMP HIS
Fall 2018, Spring 2020
HARC 0339 - Home: The Way We Live ▲
Home: The Why Behind the Way We Live
In this course we will examine the development of numerous housing types in America (with references to Europe). The prevalence of the single-family home today and its importance as the symbol of the “American dream” was never a forgone conclusion. In fact, the American home has been the focus of and battleground for cooperative movements, feminism, municipal socialism, benevolent capitalism, and government interventions on a national scale. 3 hrs. sem. AMR ART HIS NOR
Spring 2019, Fall 2020
HARC 0341 / GRMN 0341 - Faust's Metropolis: Berlin
Berlin: History, Architecture, and Urbanism in Faust’s Metropolis (in English)
In this course we will investigate the rich and complicated built environment of Berlin. By looking at both visual evidence and textual sources we will uncover how the city has been transformed from a cultural backwater during the early modern period to the current capital of a reunified Germany. By the conclusion of this course, you will be comfortable “reading” buildings and spaces and will be able to navigate both the physical city of Berlin and the many layers of history buried within. 3 hrs. sem. ART EUR HIS
Fall 2019
HARC 0375 / GRMN 0375 - Exhibiting the Bauhaus
Exhibiting the Bauhaus
The Bauhaus (1919-1933) was an experimental school, a modern laboratory for artistic innovation. In three different German cities over a period of 14 tumultuous years three different artistic directors, their colleagues, and students challenged the traditional hierarchy of the arts by placing the fine arts, design, and architecture on equal footing. With the help of primary and secondary source readings, we will not only consider the Bauhaus’ far reaching influence on the practice and teaching of art, design and architecture, but also its enormous social and political impacts. Taking these ideas as our point of departure, our class will work with select works from the holdings of the Sabarsky Foundation in New York City (including those by Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky, Anni Albers and Oskar Schlemmer). A major part of our inquiry will involve the planning of an exhibition of these original artworks at the Middlebury College Museum in the spring of 2020. 3 hrs. sem ART EUR HIS
Fall 2019
HARC 0530 - Independent Architect. Design ▹
Supervised independent work in architectural analysis and design. (Approval Required)
Winter 2017, Spring 2017, Winter 2018, Spring 2018, Winter 2019, Spring 2019, Winter 2020, Spring 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021
HARC 0710 - Senior Thesis Research Seminar
Senior Thesis Research Seminar
In this course students will conceive, undertake research, and plan the organization of their senior thesis in art history or senior museum studies projects. Seminar discussions and workshops will focus on research strategies, conventions in art historical writing, project design, and public presentation skills. (HARC 0301; Approval Required) 3 hr. sem.
Fall 2018
HARC 0711 - SNR Thesis: Research/Writing ▹
Senior Thesis: Research and Writing
This course is a continuation of HARC 0710 which consists of ongoing, supervised independent research, plus organizing, writing and presenting a senior thesis. (HARC 0301 and HARC 0710). WTR
Winter 2019, Winter 2021