Christina E. CrawfordMasse-Martin NEH Professor of Art History, Associate Professor
Education
- Ph.D., Harvard University, 2016
- M. Arch., Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2003
- B.A., Yale University, 1995
Biography
Christina E. Crawford is Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Architecture in the Art History Department at Emory University, faculty of Emory's Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Program, and 2021 recipient of the Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.
Her first book, Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union (Cornell University Press, 2022), establishes the foundations of early Soviet urban theory and practice and is the recipient of funding from the Millard Meiss Publication Fund of the College Art Association, and a Digital Publishing in the Humanities/TOME subsidy from Emory University. Detroit-Moscow-Detroit: An Architecture for Industrialization, 1917-1945, a co-edited volume on Soviet-American technical exchange during the late 1920s, will be published by MIT Press in 2023.
Her new research, Atlanta Housing Interplay, funded by the Getty Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the Digital Monograph Writers Workshop at Emory, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, investigates international transfer of ideas about social housing using the first federally-funded housing projects in the US—Atlanta’s University and Techwood Homes (1933-37)—as principal nodes.
She is the faculty advisor for the Architectural Studies Minor and the QSS Architectural Studies track. She advises topics on modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism.
Research Interests
- Modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism—history, theory, and design
- Modern housing
- Socialist space, with an emphasis on the Soviet sphere
- The entanglement of economy, politics, and societal expectations in built form
Selected Publications
Books
 | Detroit-Moscow-Detroit: An Architecture for Industrialization, 1917-1945, eds. Christina Crawford, Jean-Louis Cohen, Claire Zimmerman (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, forthcoming 2023) |
 | Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2022) Open Access version here.
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 | Chicago: Two Grids Between Lake and River (Redesigning Gridded Cities series). Co-authored with Joan Busquets (San Francisco: ORO Editions, 2017) |
 | Urban Housing Atlas, eds. Tim Love, Chris Genter, Matthew Littell (Boston: pinkcommabooks, 2008) |
Book Chapters
“Closing the Loop: Soviet Memoirs of American Technical Consultants, 1928-34,” in Detroit-Moscow-Detroit: An Architecture for Industrialization, 1917-1945, eds. Jean-Louis Cohen, Christina E. Crawford, Claire Zimmerman (Cambridge: MIT Press, forthcoming 2023)
“The Case for Saving Socialist Space,” in Research Companion to Landscape Architecture, eds. Ellen Braae and Henriette Steiner (London: Routledge, 2019), 260-274
Tim Love and Christina Crawford, "Plot Logic: Character-Building through Creative Parcelisation," in Urban Design and the Real Estate Development Process, eds. Steve Tiesdell and David Adams (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 92-113. Complete co-authorship.
Articles
“Black Community Building: New Deal Programmatic Advocacy at Atlanta’s University Homes,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 81, no. 2 (June 2022): 213-234
“From Tractors to Territory: Socialist Urbanization through Standardization,” Journal of Urban History 44, no. 1 (2017): 54-77.
Winner of the 2017 Emerging Scholar Prize from Society of Historians of Eastern European, Eurasian and Russian Art and Architecture.
“The Innovative Potential of Scarcity in SA’s Comradely Competition for Communal Housing, 1927." ArchiDOCT 1, no. 2 (2014): 33-53
“Kul'tura Torgovogo Tsentra (Mall Culture),” ACC (Art, City, Construction) / Ukraine 41, no. 10 (2003): 44-45
Reviews & Interviews
Review of Monotown: Urban Dreams, Brutal Imperatives by Clayton Strange, Journal of Urban Design 26, no. 1 (January 2021): 133-135
Review of Brokers of Modernity: East Central Europe and the Rise of Modernist Architects, 1910-1950 by Martin Kohlrausch. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (September 2020, vol. 79, no. 3): 344-346
Review of Industries of Architecture by Katie Lloyd Thomas, Tilo Amhoff, Nick Beech. Journal of Architectural Education (Nov.16, 2017)
Public History & Journalistic Articles, Interviews, Reviews
“Seeing Ukraine Then and Now,” Harvard Design Magazine 50: Today’s Global (2022): 164-169
5-image photo essay that accompanies text by Jerold S. Kayden.
“Love Letter to Ukraine in the Language of Architecture,” Platform (July 4, 2022), platformspace.net
24-image photo essay and 600-word text essay.
“Atlanta Citizenship and Housing, Success and Setback,” Platform, June 14, 2021, platformspace.net
1,500-word essay.
“In an Extraordinary Space,” Architecture Boston 20: 2 (2017): 20-23
Christina E. Crawford with Darra Goldstein (interview), “Under the Bed is a Cool, Dark Place,” Harvard Design Magazine 43: Shelf Life (2106)
“From the Old Family—to the New,” Harvard Design Magazine 41: Family Planning (2015): 38-45
“Soviet Planning Praxis: From Tractors to Territory,” Centerpiece (Weatherhead Center for International Affairs) 29, no. 2 (Spring 2015): 14-20
“Genplan 101: How to Read a Socialist General Plan Drawing,” Second World Urbanity, February 6, 2015, secondworldurbanity.org. 1,500-word essay.
“Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity, MOMA New York” (exhibition review), Architecture Boston 13, no. 2 (2010)
“Mini Monuments or Little Monsters,” Heroic exhibit, Pinkcomma Gallery, Boston, MA.
1,000-word essay.
“Urban Space or State Monument? The Maydan in Kiev,” Archis 2 (2003): 46-49.
“A Declaration of Independence,” Metropolis, December (2002): 54.
Books / Projects in Preparation
Atlanta Housing Interplay: Expanding the Interwar Housing Map. Manuscript and public history website in process with support from the Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Art, and a Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts research and development grant.
Selected Seminars
Spatial Revolution! Early Soviet Architecture and Planning; Soviet Cities; Mining the Archive: Atlanta’s New Deal Public Housing; The Architect and the City; Four Walls and a Roof: Contemporary Architectural Theory & Practice
