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Scholarly Activities in Garden and Landscape Studies



Awards for Students

Advanced undergraduate and graduate students may apply for Bliss Symposium Awards to support attendance at the annual symposium.


Upcoming Events

Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium/Workshop

March 25–29, 2024 | Swati Chattopadhyay and Zeynep Kezer, Organizers

Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium

May 10–11, 2024 | Vera S. Candiani, Symposiarch

2024 Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Summer Program

May 20–June 7, 2024, hosted at Dumbarton Oaks | Intensive three-week workshop, for PhD and MLA candidates, and recent MLA graduates.

Past Events

2020s

2023

Black Women’s Gardens as Art and Practice

October 19–21, 2023 | Mellon Democracy and Landscape Initiative Annual Colloquium

Landscape Histories and Historiography

May 22–June 9, 2023 | Summer Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop

Environmental Histories of the Black Atlantic World: Landscape Histories of the African Diaspora

May 12–13, 2023 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies; N. D. B. Connolly and Oscar de la Torre, Symposiarchs

The Enchantment of the Living World

February 9–11, 2023 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium; Luke Morgan and D. Fairchild Ruggles, Colloquia-archs

Radical Nonviolence, Interracial Utopias, and the Long Civil Rights Movement

January 27, 2023 | Public Lecture with Victoria W. Wolcott

2022

Changing Climates, Changing Histories: Perspectives from the Humanities

October 21–22, 2022 | Interdisciplinary Symposium in partnership with Byzantine Studies and Pre-Columbian Studies

Landscape History and Historiography

May 15 to June 3, 2022 | Summer Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies

“My Brilliant Career & Long and Winding Road”

June 9, 2022 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Martha Schwartz

Landscapes in the Making

May 6–7, 2022 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies; Stephen Daniels, Dell Upton, and Thaïsa Way, Symposiarchs

Landscapes of Civil Rights in the District of Columbia and the National Capital Area

February 25, 2022 | Mellon Colloquium, in partnership with the National Park Service, the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites at the University of Pennsylvania, and Tulane University

2021

Toward Black Environmental Imaginations

CANCELLED | October 21, 2021 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Carlyn E. Ferrari

Special Lecture Series: Hidden Landscapes of the Past: Uncovering the Ancient World through LiDAR
June 16–July 28, 2021 | Interdisciplinary Summer Lecture Series

Taking the High Ground: A Model for Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns as Seen through LiDAR

July 28, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Marcello Canuto

Visualizing Bomarzo: LiDAR and the Interpretation of an Enigmatic Renaissance Landscape

July 21, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Luke Morgan and John Garton

Bathed in Light: Revealing Ohio’s Ancient Monuments with LiDAR

July 14, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Jarrod Burks

New Light under the Amazon Forest

July 7, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, José Iriarte

Lasers below the Clouds: Mapping Kuelap with Drone-Mounted and Terrestrial LiDAR

June 30, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Parker VanValkenburgh

The Garden City of Greater Angkor: Insights from Remote Sensing

June 23, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Roland Fletcher

Olmec and Maya Ceremonial Landscape Revealed through LiDAR

June 16, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Takeshi Inomata

Public Landscapes and Public Health: An Inquiry into the Histories of Landscape Design

May 10–28, 2021 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies

Land Back: Indigenous Landscapes of Resurgence and Freedom

April 29, May 13, May 27, and June 10, 2021 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies; Michelle Daigle and Heather Dorries, Symposiarchs

Where Was Jim Crow? Living in Frank Lloyd Wright’s America

March 4, 2021 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Dianne Harris

2020

Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City

November 12, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, A. K. Sandoval-Strausz

Teaching Urban Landscape History and Democracy

October 23, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Study Day, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies; Thaïsa Way and Anatole Tchikine, Organizers

Memoryscapes of King Philip’s War: Revisiting Indigenous and Colonial Places, Histories, and Legacies

October 1, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Christine DeLucia

The Public Realm and the Design and Construction of Public Landscapes

May 17–June 5, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop

Segregation and Resistance in America’s Urban Landscapes

July 1–September 14, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Virtual Symposium, Thaïsa Way, Symposiarch

2010s

2019

Interpreting Landscapes of Enslavement

October 25, 2019 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium, Thaïsa Way, Colloquiarch

2019 Summer Graduate Workshop

May 12–June 1, 2019 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop

Landscape, Sport, Environment: The Spaces of Sport from the Early Modern Period to Today

May 3–4, 2019 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Sonja Dümpelmann, Symposiarch

Learning from Detroit: Restoring Neighborhood Landscapes

February 14, 2019 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Maurice Cox

2018

Botanical Gardens and the Urban Future

November 2, 2018 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium, John Beardsley and Anatole Tchikine, Organizers

2018 Summer Graduate Workshop

May 13–June 2, 2018 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop

Military Landscapes

May 4–5, 2018 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Anatole Tchikine and John Davis, Symposiarchs

Outside/IN: Martha Jackson Jarvis at Dumbarton Oaks Opening Event

April 13, 2018 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture

2017

How Designers Think

November 3, 2017 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium

The Power of Place: Preserving the Legacy of African American Settlements

September 20, 2017 | Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies Public Event, jointly sponsored with the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum

2017 Summer Graduate Workshop

June 5–23, 2017 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop

Landscapes of Pre-Industrial Cities

May 5–6, 2017 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Georges Farhat and John Beardsley, Symposiarchs

Success in the City: Social and Environmental Urban Design for the 21st Century

April 21, 2017 | Smithsonian Earth Optimism Summit Panel, John Beardsley and Jeanne Haffner, Chairs

Between Land Art and Landscape Architecture: A Dialogue with Udo Weilacher and John Beardsley

March 30, 2017 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Udo Weilacher and John Beardsley

2016

Glorifying the City in Counter-Reformation Italy: Girolamo Righettino Rediscovered

November 9, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Denis Ribouillault

Landscapes of Housing

October 14, 2016 | Mellon Colloquium, Harvard University. Sponsored by the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative and the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks; Jeanne Haffner, Organizer

Hubert Robert and French Garden Culture

September 27, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA)

2016 Summer Graduate Workshop

June 6–18, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop

Landscape and the Academy

May 6–7, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Daniel Bluestone and John Beardsley, Symposiarchs

Olympic Landscapes: Green and Greener

April 14, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Mary Margaret Jones

Film Screening: Containment

March 23, 2016 | Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies and Garden and Landscape Studies, in collaboration with the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital

2015

Frontiers in Urban Landscape Research

November 20, 2015 | Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop

The Monster in the Garden: Early Modern Landscape Design and the Grotesque

April 30, 2015 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Thomas Woltz, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

River Cities: Historical and Contemporary

May 8–9, 2015 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Thaïsa Way, Symposiarch

Culture, History, and Context: Inspiring Contemporary Landscapes

April 30, 2015 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Thomas Woltz, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

2014

Landscape and Sacred Architecture in Pre-Modern South Asia

November 14, 2014 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium, John Beardsley and Subhashini Kaligotla, Colloquiarchs

Sound and Scent in the Garden

May 9–10, 2014 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, D. Fairchild Ruggles, Symposiarch

How to Read the Chinese Garden? Qianlong Emperor’s Retreat in the Forbidden City

March 20, 2014 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Eugene Wang, Harvard University

2013

"Urban Green" and “Landscape Planning in the Core of the Assyrian Empire, ca. 900–600 BC"

December 2013 | Informal Talks, Peter Harnik and Jason Ur

Travel and Translation

November 1, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium

Le Notre and Versailles in Modernity (20th to 21st Centuries)

September 23, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Georges Farhat, University of Toronto

Cultural Landscape Heritage in Sub-Saharan Africa

May 10–11, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium

Gardens and the Work of Environmental Memory

April 11, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Lawrence Buell, Harvard University; Sponsored by the Director’s Offices

The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne

March 21, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Film Screening, Susan Vogel, Director; in collaboration with the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital

Working with Farrand/Farrand at Work

March 8, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium

2012

History and Memory in the Manchu Imperial Park of Bishu Shanzhuang

December 5, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Stephen Whiteman, A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, CASVA

Management and Conservation in the Historic Villas and Gardens of Rome

November 14, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Informal Talk, Alberta Campitelli, Director of the City of Rome’s Office of Historic Villas and Parks

Food and the City

May 4–5, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Dorothée Imbert, Symposiarch

Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot, Cloud Terrace Installation

April 5, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture

Before the Memorial

February 8, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Peter Walker, Principal, PWP Landscape Architecture

2011

Landscapes of Enchantment: Cosmology, Ritual and Ideas of Place in the Ancient Yaruba City-State

September 22, 2011 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Suzanne Blier, Harvard University

Technology and the Garden

May 6–7, 2011 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; Published 2014

Waste and Wilderness

March 15, 2011 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Peter Galison, Harvard University

The Role of History in Contemporary Landscape Architecture

March 3, 2011 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, John Dixon Hunt, University of Pennsylvania

2010

Lawrence Halprin (1916–2009)

December 11, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium; In Collaboration with Landscape Journal; Published in Landscape Journal 31, nos. 1–2 (2012).

Primitive Ways in an Accelerated World

September 21, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Artist’s Talk, Patrick Dougherty

Designing Wildlife Habitats

May 14–15, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, John Beardsley and Alexander Felson, Symposiarchs; Published 2013

Working in Mughal Paradise: Restoring Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi & Bagh-e Babur, Kabul

April 19, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Ratish Nanda, Projects Director, Aga Khan Trust for Culture

Museum Sculpture Gardens: A Brief Illustrated History

March 25, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture and Film Screening, John Walsh, Director Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Museum

2000s

2009

A Second Suburb: The Landscape of Levittown, PA

November 18, 2009 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Dianne Harris, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

biglittleskipthemiddle

October 1, 2009 | Garden and Landscape Studies Vaslef Public Lecture, Ken Smith, Principal, Ken Smith Landscape Architect

The Interlacing of Words and Things in Gardens and Landscapes: Beyond Nature and Culture

May 8–9, 2009 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Stephen Bann, Symposiarch; Published 2012

Wild Urban Plants

March 30, 2009 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Peter del Tredici, Harvard University

2008

Sustaining Beauty: The Performance of Appearance

December 4, 2008 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Beth Meyer, University of Virginia

The New Vernacular: Redefining Urbanity in Contemporary China

October 1, 2008 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Kongjian Yu, Peking University

2007

Recent Issues in Italian Garden Studies: Sources, Methods, and Theoretical Perspectives

2007 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; Published 2011

Middle East Garden Traditions: Unity and Diversity; Questions, Methods, and Resources in a Multicultural Perspective

Spring 2007 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; Cosponsored by the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; Published 2007

2006

Archaeology of Garden Imagination

Spring 2006 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; Cosponsored by The Huntington; Published 2008

2005

Existence and Experience in Contemporary Garden Design

May 4–7, 2005 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium

2004

Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations, and Cultural Changes

2004 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution of Botany and the United States Botanical Garden

2003

Lay Ritual Practices in Gardens and Landscapes

2003 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium

Gardens of the Roman Empire

February 14–15, 2003 | Joint Byzantine Studies and Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium

2002

Sacred Ritual Practices in Gardens and Landscapes

2002 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium

2001

Social Reception of Baroque Gardens

May 11–12, 2001 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium

2000

Landscape Design and the Experience of Motion

2000 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium