VAF’s website has all the details you’ll need to attend our conference virtually, including the schedule and information about the program.  This year we will have two days of events, on Friday afternoon the 21st of May and all day Saturday the 22nd of May.

This year the conference is free to all VAF members, so be sure to check in advance to be sure you can log in.  Remember there are multiple membership levels, several quite affordable, and this might be a good time to join or suggest it to your colleagues and students.  If you are already a member, please consider a small donation to VAF.

We are going to try something new at the end of the day Friday – break-out rooms where we can gather in smaller groups for discussion and socializing built around our programs and interests.  So far there will be rooms for VAN, B&L, the Special Series, for the New England Chapter, for a potential Tidewater Chapter, and for continued discussion of field work after the panel earlier in the day.  Kim Hoagland will host a group for authors to present information about their new books. 

Are there are other topics or themes you think we should address?  I hope some of you might be willing to host a breakout room?  Contact me with your ideas.

Looking forward to seeing you then!

Claire Dempsey

VAF President

dempseyc@bu.edu

Have you published a book in the last year or two?  For a roundtable/social hour/breakout room at VAF’s virtual conference on Friday, May 21, I am planning to gather authors of recently published books to talk informally about their work.  We want to hear about your book and maybe even be inspired to purchase a copy!  If interested, please contact Kim Hoagland (hoagland@mtu.edu) by May 1.

Funds for field schools, fieldwork related to scholarly research, and field-based continuing education are available in 2021 through the Orlando Ridout V Fieldwork Fellowship. In the past, the Fellowship has been well utilized by field school directors and students attending various programs across the country; however, like so many others, the pandemic affected these learning opportunities.  With vaccinations, we are hopeful that field schools will soon resume regular activities. In the meantime, we are highlighting the other categories in which this fellowship can be immensely helpful to both students and professionals. Students may also apply to assist with research and fieldwork for the preparation of a thesis or dissertation, and practicing professionals and scholars may apply for continuing education as related to fieldwork or for actual fieldwork that  complements their archival research.  

Funding categories include:  

1) Field school directors (VAF members) may apply for grants of up to $1,000 to support their programs and/or provide financial aid to participants; 

2) Participants in field schools or other training opportunities may apply for stipends of up to $500 to attend such programs (prior VAF membership not required for students); 

3) VAF individual or institutional members may apply for grants up to $500 to support continuing education and professional training activities; 

4) VAF members may apply for grants of up to $1,000 for support of fieldwork activities related to the pursuit of academic degrees; 

5) VAF members may apply for grants of up to $1,000 to support fieldwork activities

The Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF) solicits letters of interest from scholars seeking to serve its peer-reviewed journal Buildings & Landscapes. The journal currently has an opening for the position of image editor. This is a volunteer position.

Published twice a year by University of Minnesota Press, Buildings & Landscapes is the leading source for scholarly work on the vernacular architecture of North America or areas that broaden the context of North American architecture and cultural landscapes. The journal’s contributors include historians and architectural historians, preservationists and architects, geographers, anthropologists and folklorists, and others. All share an interest in documenting, analyzing, and interpreting vernacular forms and approach the built environment as windows into human life and culture, basing their scholarship on both fieldwork and archival research. As of the Fall 2020 issue (27.2), the journal is printed in full color, making the role of the image editor even more important.

Call for image editor

The image editor of Buildings & Landscapes works closely with the journal’s two coeditors on all matters related to the illustration program. This includes advising on the selection, sizing, and color of images. In addition, the image editor works with each author to ensure the submittal of images of sufficient resolution and appropriate permissions in advance of submission to the University of Minnesota Press per its guidelines. The image editor also reviews proofs and answers queries from the Press to facilitate publication. The image editor is a three-year (six journal issues) position. The image editor term officially begins with B&L 30.1 (Spring 2023), whose submissions are due to the Press in the Fall 2022. Ideally this new image editor will shadow the current one for 29.2 (Fall 2022), whose submissions are due in Spring 2022. 

To be considered for the image editor position by the selection committee, to suggest a colleague, or to ask questions, interested parties should send letters of interest and CVs to B&L Co-Editor Lydia Brandt (lbrandt.usc@gmail.com) by July 1, 2021. Applicants should ideally have experience with Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Excel, and familiarity with United States copyright and fair use rules. Those with knowledge of the VAF or who have previously published in Buildings & Landscapes or Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture are especially encouraged to apply. 

VAF San Antonio will include a tour of the Westside, a traditionally Hispanic neighborhood that saw explosive growth in the early twentieth century. The Friday tour will include commercial buildings, the neighborhood church (Our Lady of Guadalupe) built in 1921, a variety of houses, the Alazan-Apache Courts (aka Los Courts), the earliest (1939) public housing in San Antonio, and the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. This trio of shotguns house at 811, 813 and 815 S. Smith Street are called vecindad houses, as the three are tightly sited on a shared lot. While these three are painted white, as is typical for Texas shotguns, we will see others in a more Westside color palette, painted blue, lime green, and yellow.

In March, Danielle Willkens published Architecture for Teens: A Beginner's Book for Aspiring Architects.  Available on both Amazon and Bookshop, 

The book provides a practical introduction for young people with a broad overview of architectural movements, interviews with working professionals, and connections to the timely issue of environmental sustainability. 

The Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) is now accepting paper abstracts for the 2021 Annual Conference, to be held in Natchez, Mississippi, September 29—October 2, 2021, and co-hosted by Historic Natchez Foundation, Natchez National Historical Park, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The paper sessions will be held on Thursday and Friday, September 30 and October 1. Please submit paper and/or session proposals via Qualtrics at: SESAH 2021 Paper and Session Proposals by May 1, 2021.

For the full call for papers and important dates, see the SESAH conference page.

The University of Oregon in Eugene and Portland, Oregon invites applications for Visiting Faculty Fellowships in Design for Spatial Justice at the rank of assistant, associate, full, or professor of practice in the areas of architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture and historic preservation in the School of Architecture & Environment in the College of Design. The School of Architecture & Environment will award up to six faculty fellowships in design/research and teaching for durations of two terms to three years, to start as early as September 2021. Each fellow will be expected to teach one or two courses per quarter (five courses per year) and to contribute to scholarship and public programming.

We particularly encourage applications from candidates who are interested in advancing questions in spatial justice at the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, indigenousness, sexuality, and economic inequality and who will work in teaching and scholarship in a wide and innovative variety of design/research methods at all scales. Such methods might include but are not limited to: traditional modes of scholarship, design, design research and creative practice; emerging technologies, design media and fabrication; design and design/build; and community engagement, social practice, or critical spatial practice. We are particularly interested in candidates who will teach innovative design studios, subject area courses, and seminar courses in any of the following areas: interior environments, accessibility, media, design processes, architectural technology, cultural heritage and heritage conservation, inclusive urbanism, biocultural restoration, traditional ecological knowledge, feminist spatial practice, design computation, integrated design, ecological justice, climate change resilience, habitats/housing, human-centered design, urbanism and/or land use, and materials and methods.

To build our shared capacity to take intellectual risks and to advance knowledge, we are dedicated to building a community that fully includes students, designers, and scholars whose excellence depends on the breadth of their experiences and perspectives and who are committed to working in a multicultural environment. We encourage applications from historically marginalized and currently underrepresented communities including but not limited to women, ethnic and racial minorities, LGBTQ people, veterans, and people with disabilities.

For detailed requirements and to apply, follow this link