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Kelly Ritter

Architectural history professor

Education

  • M.ARLH., architectural history, University of Virginia
  • Ph.D., constructed environment, University of Virginia
  • B.A., art history, French, University of California - Davis

Credentials

Academic experience

  • Professor of architectural history, 2003–present, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
  • Adjunct faculty in architectural history, 2014, Maryland Institute College of Art
  • Instructor of English, 2009, Weifang Vocational College, Shadong Province, China

Awards, recognitions, and honors

Awards and service

  • President, Constructed Environment Plus (CE+), School of Architecture Graduate Student Association, 2017
  • Elected to the Raven Society, University of Virginia Honor Society, 2016
  • Co-founder and Vice President, Constructed Environment Plus (CE+), School of Architecture Graduate Student Association, 2015–16
  • Betty Leake Award, Department of Architectural History, University of Virginia School of Architecture, 2014
  • Vice President, Thomas Jefferson Student Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians (TJSAH), 2013–14
  • School of Architecture Faculty Award, Rivanna River Vortex Design Charette, University of Virginia School of Architecture, 2013
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, Foreign Language Department, Weifang Vocational College, 2009

Grants and fellowships

  • Opler Grant for Membership for Emerging Professionals, Society of Architectural Historians, 2023
  • Dumas Malone Graduate Research Fellow, University of Virginia 2018–19
  • Kelly W.S. Ritter 2, Constructed Environment Travel Grant, University of Virginia School of Architecture, Spring 2018
  • Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation Graduate Research Grant, University of Virginia, Spring 2018
  • Hobby Family Foundation Fellow in the Constructed Environment, University of Virginia, 2014–17
  • Lambert Woods Architects Scholarship, University of Virginia, 2013
  • School of Architecture Dean's Graduate Student Research Grant, University of Virginia, Spring 2013
  • Foreign Language and Area Studies, FLAS, United States Department of Education (Mandarin)

Organizations

  • Society of Architectural Historians
  • Urban History Association
  • Association for Asian Studies
  • American Association of University Women

Publications and presentations

Publications

  • "From Pictures to the Printed Word: Shao Xunmei, 時代漫畫 Modern Sketch (1934-1937), and the Chinese pictorial magazine as a path towards literacy," A Modern Journal (Special issue on themes of alternative technology and revolution), (forthcoming), November 2023.

Chaired conference panels

  • "A Preservation Polemic on its Own Terms: Heritage Preservation in Modern China," virtual roundtable for the Society of Architectural Historians Annual Conference, 2023.
  • "Material Matters: (Re)envisioning China within the practice of art and architecture," panel at the Association of Asian Studies in Asia Conference, Ashoka University, Delhi, India, 2018.

Conferences

  • "The Neo-Confucian City? How images of urban homes in 时代漫画/Modern Sketch contravened and critiqued Republican social reforms centered in the home," paper for the Urban History Association annual conference, Detroit, MI, 2021.
  • "A Truly Modern Media: the marriage of cutting-edge printing technology and avant-garde visual culture in the 1930s Shanghai pictorial magazine 时代漫画/Modern Sketch," paper for the Before and Beyond Typography Conference, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2020.
  • "The City and its Image: how visual culture reframes and reimagines 1930s Shanghai," paper for the Association of Asian Studies in Asia Conference, Ashoka University, Delhi, India, 2018.
  • "Cityscapes, Cartoons, and Civic Critique," paper for the Central 2018 Virginia Graduate Research Forum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 2018.
  • "Citizening the Working Poor; the Right to the City and urban citizenship in 1930s Shanghai," paper delivered at Urban History Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, 2016.
  • "An Urban Covenant: Acts of placemaking and the Right to the City in 1930s Shanghai," paper delivered at the New York Conference on Asian Studies, Utica, NY, 2016.

Invited talks

  • "Landscapes of Enslaved Labor in a UNESCO Heritage Site; interpreting historical evidence of the presence of the enslaved and free Black community found in the basements of student rooms at the Academical Village," presented at Martin Luther King Roundtable Forum, Charlottesville, VA, 2016.
  • "The Tangible Power of Place: Marshall Swain Wells, Architect and Farmington Country Club," presented at Farmington Historical Society, Charlottesville, VA, 2016.

Campus talks and guest lectures

  • "Visual Culture and Urban Shanghai.," guest lecture for Professor Jessica Sewell's course "Metropolis," University of Virginia School of Architecture. Charlottesville, VA, 2018.
  • "New Methodologies: Visual Culture for Urban Historians," University of Virginia School of Architecture Research Dialogs, Charlottesville, VA, 2018.
  • "Liminal Citizen/Liminal City: Envisioning rights in urban space in 1930s Shanghai," paper delivered at the Diversifying Scholarship Conference, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 2017.
  • "Shanghai: the City and its Image," University of Virginia School of Architecture Research Dialogs. Charlottesville, VA, 2017.
  • "Shanghai: Montage City," University of Virginia School of Architecture Research Dialogs. Charlottesville, VA, 2016.
  • "Principles of Chinese Architecture," Chinese Culture Series, University of Virginia Summer Language Institute, Charlottesville, VA, 2015.
  • "Thinking the City," University of Virginia School of Architecture Research Dialogs. Charlottesville, VA, 2015.
  • "Hidden Shanghai: Exploring the Early 20th Century City," presentation and walking tour for the Chinese Culture and History Series, East China Normal University and University of Virginia. Shanghai, China, 2014.