History of Art and Architecture

Despina Stratigakos to Give 2023 Spear Endowed Lecture

Despina Stratigakos is a writer, historian, and Professor of Architecture at the University at Buffalo. This Spring she will give the 2023 Spear Endowed Lecture titled, "Hitler and the North: How Nazi Architects and Planners in Occupied Norway Envisioned a Nordic Empire."

Despina StratigakosStratigakos' research explores how power and ideology function in architecture, whether in the creation of domestic spaces or of world empires. She is the author of four books. Hitler’s Northern Utopia: Building the New Order in Occupied Norway (2020), winner of the Society of Architectural Historians 2022 Spiro Kostof Book Prize, examines how Nazi architects and planners envisioned and began to construct a model “Aryan” society in Norway during World War II. Where Are the Women Architects? (2016), confronts the challenges women face in the architectural profession. Hitler at Home (2015) investigates the architectural and ideological construction of the Führer’s domesticity. A Women’s Berlin: Building the Modern City (2008), which traces the history of a forgotten female metropolis, won the 2009 German Studies Association DAAD Book Prize. Stratigakos has served as UB Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence and on the Board of Directors of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House, Society of Architectural Historians, International Archive of Women in Architecture, and Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. 

Learn more about Stratigakos and her research on the event page.