This symposium interrogates the relationship between architectural theory and politics by revisiting the past decades of architectural theory at the California College of the Arts. The emergence of CCA’s professional architecture programs (circa 1990) came at a crest in what has been often termed architecture’s “theoretical turn.” Likewise, the establishment of History Theory Experiments (HTX) at CCA (circa 2013) marked a moment of increased interest in architecture’s many mediatic forms, from spatial activism to exhibitions and discursive production aimed beyond the boundaries of the architectural discipline. Straddling the socially-engaged creative practice of an experimental arts college and the disciplinarity of an accredited professional degree, the particular nature of architecture at CCA likewise informed a distinctive relationship between theory, politics, and the built environment. With CCA set to close at the end of spring 2027—at a moment when the politics of architecture and theory alike are increasingly contested—this history offers openings for the field’s present and future.

Taking place on Election Day, we will ask about theory’s role, past and present, in cultivating an engagement with democratic politics. We will also do this by reflecting back on CCA’s history of history/theory with six invited speakers who have taught at CCA in the past decades. In the third and final iteration of a series of architectural theory symposia organized by HTX (Materialities of Architectural Discourse, 2021; Theory Acts, 2024), our aim is both to celebrate the remarkable lineage of historians and theorists who have been a part of CCA’s community, and to look unflinchingly at theory’s relation to the profession today.

Speakers:

Jasmine Benyamin is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the USC School of Architecture whose interdisciplinary scholarship addresses architectural manifestations in art practice and popular culture, with a particular focus on film and photography.

Irene Cheng is an Associate Professor in Architecture at the Cooper Union, an architectural historian and critic, and the author of The Shape of Utopia: The Architecture of Radical Reform in Nineteenth-Century America.

Lisa Findley is a Professor Emeritus of Architecture at CCA. Author of Building Change: Architecture, Politics, and Cultural Agency, her work and teaching at CCA frequently connected theory to architectural practice, including her “Radically Local” seminar.

David Gissen is Professor of Architecture at Yale University, director of the PhD program at the School of Architecture, and the author of The Architecture of Disability.

Jia Yi Gu is Assistant Professor of Architecture at Harvey Mudd College, an architectural historian and curator, and one-half of the architecture and research studio Spinagu.

Mabel O. Wilson is Professor of Architecture at Columbia University and Chair of African American and African Diasporic Studies, and author of the forthcoming Building Race and Nation: Slavery and Dispossession’s Influence on American Civic Architecture.

Please register to attend.

Organized by James Graham (CCA) & Ecem Saricayir (CCA).

Hosted by History Theory Experiments (HTX).

Co-presented with Creative Citizens in Action (CCA@CCA).

Funded by an endowment gift to support The Deborah & Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Series at CCA, an annual series of public programs focused on creative activism.