Background
Wright, Gwendolyn was born on May 14, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Daughter of William Kemp and Mary Ruth (Brown) Wright.
( Politics and culture are at once semi-autonomous and in...)
Politics and culture are at once semi-autonomous and intertwined. Nowhere is this more revealingly illustrated than in urban design, a field that encompasses architecture and social life, traditions and modernization. Here aesthetic goals and political intentions meet, sometimes in collaboration, sometimes in conflict. Here the formal qualities of art confront the complexities of history. When urban design policies are implemented, they reveal underlying aesthetic, cultural, and political dilemmas with startling clarity. Gwendolyn Wright focuses on three French colonies—Indochina, Morocco, and Madagascar—that were the most discussed, most often photographed, and most admired showpieces of the French empire in the early twentieth century. She explores how urban policy and design fit into the French colonial policy of "association," a strategy that accepted, even encouraged, cultural differences while it promoted modern urban improvements that would foster economic development for Western investors. Wright shows how these colonial cities evolved, tracing the distinctive nature of each locale under French imperialism. She also relates these cities to the larger category of French architecture and urbanism, showing how consistently the French tried to resolve certain stylistic and policy problems they faced at home and abroad. With the advice of architects and sociologists, art historians and geographers, colonial administrators sought to exert greater control over such matters as family life and working conditions, industrial growth and cultural memory. The issues Wright confronts—the potent implications of traditional norms, cultural continuity, modernization, and radical urban experiments—still challenge us today.
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historian writer architecture educator
Wright, Gwendolyn was born on May 14, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Daughter of William Kemp and Mary Ruth (Brown) Wright.
Bachelor, New York University, 1969; Master of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, 1974; Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley, 1980.
Associate professor Columbia University, New York City, 1983—1987, professor, since 1988. Director Buell Center for Study American Architecture, 1988—1992. Consultant Fulbright Scholars, Council International Exchange Scholars, Washington, 1988-1991, ArchNet, since 1999, National Building Museum, Washington, since 2001.
(This book is concerned essentially with the model of dome...)
( Politics and culture are at once semi-autonomous and in...)
Fellow: Society of America Historians, New York Institute for Humanities. Member: Society Architectural Historians, College Art Association, American History Association, Organization American Historians.
Married Paul Rabinow, November 18, 1980 (divorced 1982). Married Thomas Bender, January 14, 1984. Children: David, Sophia.