Lectures

In addition to my own presentations, the video lectures for this program include a diverse array of material assembled from various online resources. Since most of the online resources discuss specific buildings, most of my presentations consist of overarching explanations of architectural movements, styles and periods, intended to provide background, emphasize themes and help weave together the specific data provided by external video material. Many of the online resources contain credits or citations, but below I have briefly described those institutions or individuals from which I have involved multiple videos.

BBC Two, founded in 1964, is a publicly-funded and commercial-free television channel operated in the United Kingdom by the British Broadcasting Corporation that specializes in documentary and cultural programming. Excerpts from various BBC documentaries, such as “Meet the Romans with Mary Beard” (2012), hosted by Dr. Mary Beard (Professor of Classics, University of Cambridge) and “Building the Ancient City: Athens and Rome” (2015), presented by Dr. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (Professor of Roman Studies, University of Cambridge). Some clips have also been added from BBC Four, such as the series “If Walls Could Talk” (2011), hosted by Dr. Lucy Worsley (Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces) and “The Ancient World” (2002-2010), hosted by Dr. Bettany Hughes (Research Fellow, King’s College London). This is a link to the BBC YouTube channel, wherein the BBC One material greatly eclipses the others.

English Heritage was established by Parliament in 1983 as public organization to advise the government on the conservation of the built environment and natural landscape. The organization was also responsible for tending to… On April 1, 2015 the organization split into two distinct entities, Historic England and the English Heritage Trust. The former now carries on the advisory and advocacy role, whereas the latter supervises and curates the approximately 400 sites entrusted to it, which are now termed the National Heritage Collection.

Historic England (previously called English Heritage) is a public organization established in 18?? to advise the British government on matters of conservation, chiefly the “listing” of historic buildings. In addition to this role, Historic England has come to take stewardship of thousands of sites—most famously Stonehenge—around England (and it communicates with similar organizations such as Cawd in Wales and ? in Scotland). Here is a link to the Historic England YouTube channel.

Gresham College was founded in 1597 through a bequest from Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-79), a wealthy English merchant who founded the Royal Exchange in London and acted as a government advisor on economic matters to the Tudor Court. The College neither enrolls students nor awards degrees, but does support research professorships (one of the original seven Gresham professors was the architect Christopher Wren, who served as a professor of astronomy) as well as an extensive free public lecture series. Dr. Simon Thurley, served as Chief Executive of Historic England (see below) from 2002 until 2015. This link connects to all of his lectures on the history of English architecture and conservation as the Gresham Visiting Professor of the Built Environment.

The Guardian is a leading newspaper…

The Landmark Trust is non-profit organization that acquires, conserves and rents to the public architectural sites of historic significance. This is a link to the Landmark Trust YouTube channel.

The National Trust, founded in 1895, cares for over 500 historic properties, nature reserves and stretches of coastline around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is best-known for its custodianship of large aristocratic estates, which grew increasingly common during the twentieth century as income and property taxes and other developments made it increasingly difficult for the British nobility, collectively, to pay large staffs of workers to look after sprawling estates (watch Downtown Abbey for more along this line). This is a link to the National Trust Vimeo channel.

The Open University, established in 1969, is a pioneer in the field of free open education. It has a main campus at Milton Keynes (one of the best-known “new towns” designed in England after World War II), but most of its students take courses online. Long before the World Wide Web existed, the Open University was providing free educational materials to millions of students, using broadcast media such as radio and television, but also sending recorded lectures through the mail to degree-seeking enrolled students.

Open Yale Courses, which first appeared online in December 2007, makes course materials and lecture videos from numerous undergraduate survey classes freely available to the general public. The founding Director of the project, Diana E. E. Kleiner, the Dunham Professor of the History of Art & Classics at Yale University, has noted that through this service the university offers “a full college curriculum of 42 courses reflecting the broad liberal arts education provided by Yale College to anyone with an Internet connection.” This link connects to all 23 lectures from Kleiner’s semester-long course “Roman Architecture” (recorded in Spring 2009).

Smarthhistory is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 by Dr. Beth Harris, the first director of digital learning at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and Dr. Steven Zucker, then the Chair of the History of Art & Design department at Pratt Institute. Now part of Khan Academy. This link connects to the introductory page of the Smarthistory website.

The University of Notre Dame Center for Digital Scholarship is housed at Hesburgh Library. The university’s sixth MOOC (massive open online course), produced through its Office of Digital Learning series, is Professor David Mayernik’s course “The Meaning of Rome: The Renaissance and Baroque City,” created on site in Italy in conjunction with the university’s School of Architecture, which operates a longstanding study-abroad program there. This link connects to the website for the Center.