Ayala Levin

GSAPP Conversations

Ayala Levin speaks in advance of her lecture on April 16, given as part of the Detlef Mertins annual series. Having completed her Ph.D. at GSAPP in 2015, Levin is now an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Art History department. Her research focuses on architectural knowledge exchange, with an emphasis on urban planning projects in post-independence African states. In this GSAPP Conversations Bonus Episode, Levin discusses how she came to research architecture and her introduction to the field at GSAPP. She touches on her Ph.D. research on construction projects by Israeli architects during the mid-20th century in postcolonial Africa, as well current research on American construction in contemporary Africa. "In a sense, I needed to be grounded in an art discipline that has a public weight – much more than literature and the arts … architecture really shapes people’s lives, and people really do relate to architecture in every aspect of their being." —Ayala Levin More information on Ayala Levin at https://www.arthistory.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/ayala-levin.html More information on her lecture at https://www.arch.columbia.edu/events/811-the-detlef-mertins-lecture-on-the-histories-of-modernity-ayala-levin