Slade Lectures

Urban Change and Representation

Esther da Costa Meyer

Slade Professor of Fine Art, 2026

How do we know what we know about cities? Enmeshed in transnational networks, cities are always in flux, subject to constant social, cultural, and economic change. The history of architecture relies on documents––texts, images, maps––that are never value free and largely reflect the points of view of those in power. Moreover, every year lost sources come to light, troubling and sometimes contradicting our interpretations and engendering new perspectives. Contemporary scholarship requires that we reassess our tools, include other voices, analyze spatial inequalities and the ways diverse populations experienced urban space. Focusing on cities in different continents, from the nineteenth century to the present day, these lectures will probe the political and ideological implications embedded in our carefully curated architectural histories and methodologies.

Biography

Esther da Costa Meyer, Professor emerita in the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, was the Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History, Yale School of Architecture (2019) and the Kirk Varnedoe Visiting Professor at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts (2024). Her book Dividing Paris: Urban Renewal and Social Inequality, 1852-1870 (Princeton University Press, 2022) grew out of work on the architectural practices of the old colonial powers and their pervasive impact on historiography. Da Costa Meyer’s curatorial work includes Frank Gehry: On Line, at the Princeton University Art Museum (2008), and at the Jewish Museum in New York, Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design (2016) and The Sassoons (co-curated, 2023). In recent years, her research has also focused on architecture’s complicity with climate change and the architecture of refugee camps around the world.

Image credit: Nelson Kon