"Lifting the Veil:" Seeing the Built Environment through the Lens of the Humanities

FAIN: AB-258964-18

Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL 36088-1923)
Carla Jackson Bell (Project Director: June 2017 to November 2022)
Lisa Bratton (Co Project Director: December 2017 to November 2022)

A two-year faculty and curricular development project at Tuskegee University to integrate humanities study and architectural training and create an interdisciplinary minor in African-American studies.

The“Lifting the Veil” initiative seeks to integrate humanities approaches into the professional training of architects; it also seeks to expand humanities offerings by developing a new minor in African-American studies. The initiative will begin by exploring, both historically and philosophically, African-American education. Booker T. Washington advocated educating the whole individual—the hand, heart, and mind; he also advocated “co-relation,” applying academic study to practical work. Similar questions in our own time probe how to best connect humanities study to the professions. As one of only seven HBCUs currently offering accredited degrees in architecture, Tuskegee University provides an ideal setting to uncover past and current educational theories and philosophies. Tuskegee's Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science (TSACS) will lead this initiative by developing an African-American Studies minor and enriching its architecture history.

Associated Products

Lifting the Veil: Seeing the Built Environment through the Lens of the Humanities (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Lifting the Veil: Seeing the Built Environment through the Lens of the Humanities
Author: Dr. Carla J. Bell (PI) and Dr. Lisa Bratton (Co PI)
Abstract: (TSACS) in conjunction with the department of History was awarded a grant to develop humanities subject matter and content – architecture, education, history and philosophy – for a first-ever 18-credit-hour interdisciplinary minor in African American studies with a concentration in the Tuskegee Architects and the History of the Built Environment in the South. The minor will explore ways of thinking, researching and writing about the diverse experiences of African-Americans and human culture — such endeavors at an HBCU are often more limited in the curricular sense. The new minor seeks to extend African American history and liberal arts, formally into the architecture curriculum through new humanities offerings – and in so doing, provide a more focused historical perspective for students’ current educational and professional trajectories. The minor will be discipline specific to architecture and seeks to integrate humanities approach into the professional training of architects and builders. Unlike many historical arguments, this minor goes beyond documenting educational inequities and offers an alternative curriculum that will advance diverse issues and inclusiveness in architecture and humanities education. The product of the worksop will be the development of three new architecture course syllabi for classes beginning fall 2018. This minor will serve as a model for other HBCUs with Schools of Architecture and will unveil how to integrate the humanities into other professional disciplines as well as stimulate the revision of existing humanities courses to bridge humanities studies with professional schools.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.tuskegee.edu/Content/Uploads/Tuskegee/files/TSACS/Architecture/AfAmMinorApp-DanielsUpdate-Final-10.12.20.pdf
Primary URL Description: AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY IN ARCHITECTURE MINOR CURRICULUM SHEET
Audience: Undergraduate

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