Tag Archives: architecture

Roman Imperialism, Identity, and Agency

revell roman imperialism.jpg Louise Revell, Roman Imperialism and Local Identities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

From the publisher’s description of the book —

In this book, Louise Revell examines questions of Roman imperialism and Roman ethnic identity and explores Roman imperialism as a lived experience based around the paradox of similarity and difference. Her case studies of public architecture in several urban settings provide an understanding of the ways in which urbanism, the emperor and religion were part of the daily encounters of the peoples in these communities. Revell applies the ideas of agency and practice in her examination of the structures that held the empire together and how they were implicated within repeated daily activities. Rather than offering a homogenized ‘ideal type’ description of Roman cultural identity, she uses these structures as a way to understand how these encounters differed between communities and within communities, thus producing a more nuanced interpretation of what it was to be Roman. Bringing an innovative approach to the problem of Romanization, Revell breaks from traditional models and cuts across a number of entrenched debates, such as arguments about the imposition of Roman culture or resistance to Roman rule.

A scholar of Roman architecture and Latin epigraphy, Louise Revell is lecturer in the department of archaeology at the University of Southampton.

Descriptions and access at Cambridge University Press, Amazon.

The Renaissance Perfected: Architecture, Spectacle, & Tourism in Fascist Italy

Renaissance Perfected: Architecture, Spectacle, and Tourism in Fascist Italy (Buildings, Landscapes, and Societies)D. Medina Lasansky, The Renaissance Perfected: Architecture, Spectacle, & Tourism in Fascist Italy. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004.

From the preface: “This book examines the way in which the late Middle Ages and Renaissance were manipulated and deployed in service of politics during Italy’s Fascist regime between 1922 and 1945. . . .
     The Fascist regime was by no means the first, or the last, government to deploy the medieval/Renaissance past in its political rhetoric. Celebrating the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was central to the discourse of identity politics throughout the history of modern Italy.”

See also:

Architecture and Tourism: Perception, Performance and Place  Medina Lasansky and Brian McLaren eds., Architecture and Tourism: Perception, Performance, and Place. Berg, 2004.  

Spacing the Mind – cross currents in architecture and urbanism

Penn State’s Department of Architecture is hosting an interdisciplinary conference on January 31-February 1 on Spacing the Mind: Cross Currents in Architecture and Urbanism.

Penn State
Architectural Research Consortium

First Cross-Disciplinary Penn State Conference
on Architecture and Urbanism

Thursday, January 31 – Friday, February 1
Stuckeman Family Building (SALA)
University Park Campus


Presentations will take place from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Thursday evening performance and reception at the Pavilion Theater 6:15 p.m.

For program information, see the Department of Architecture website at www.arch.psu.edu