Dr Catalina Mejía Moreno
School of Architecture
Lecturer in Architectural Humanities
Director of Humanities

Full contact details
School of Architecture
Arts Tower
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
- Profile
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Catalina Mejía Moreno is an architect and architectural humanities researcher with diverse interests situated at the intersections of architectural history, material, cultural and media studies, feminist theory and decolonial/anti-colonial thought.
She is trained as an architect at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, where she also spent some years in practice before arriving to the UK. She completed an MA in Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) and a PhD in Architectural Theory and Criticism at Newcastle University under the supervision of Prof Katie Lloyd Thomas and Prof Mark Dorrian. Her thesis ‘Returns – Towards a Photographic Criticism’ [Or, the case of the North and South American elevators and the Berliner Bild Bericht] establishes the ‘photographic canon’ as an architectural phenomena in itself, and suggests material practices to difference photographic canons, destabilise them and subvert their normalisation. An important part of her work has revolves around the relationship between architecture, criticism, theory, and its modes an ethics of representation.
Her research on photography and architecture has been funded by the DAAD and the Getty Research Institute. She was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montréal for the multidisciplinary research project Architecture and/for Photography (2016-7). She is the co-founder of the Interest Group ‘Building Word and Image’ at the European Architectural History Network (EAHN).
Her current research and teaching explores creative and critical practices to de-colonise, re-energise and re-examine architectural history and theory teaching and pedagogies. Initial iterations include Fielding Architecture: Feminist Practices of a Decolonised Pedagogy symposium (2019) and ‘To Manifest’ a collaborative intersectional feminist manifesto published in Harvard Design Magazine No.46 (No Sweat) (2018). Adopting a transnational and interdisciplinary approach, her wider academic interests include spatial practices and discourses of power and resistance through feminist and decolonial pedagogies and praxis, focusing on ‘how(s)’ and practicing of ‘otherwise.’
Part of her work is featured in the SSoA Feminist Library. She is also part of the Feminist School of Architecture, an initiative based at SSoA, as well as part of the Athena Swan and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Committee. She has taught at the University of Brighton, Queen Mary University, Newcastle University and Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. She currently serves on the scientific committee of Dearquitectura (Dearq) peer reviewed journal from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia and on the editorial board of Exploring Architecture from Birkhäuser.
- Qualifications
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- BA in Architecture, Minor in Classic and Medieval Studies, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.
- MA Architectural History, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, UK.
- PhD in Architectural Theory and Criticism, Newcastle University, UK.
- Research interests
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- Gender, space, politics and pedagogies
- Collaborative, curatorial, and critical creative practices
- Questions of representation and the critique of architectural media
- Architectural modernisms
- Interdisciplinary enquiries
- Colonial and Post-colonial histories, anti-colonial/decolonial thought and feminist theories and practices
- Spatial practices and discourses of power and resistance; subaltern architectures, politics of invisibility in space
- Transcontinental flows and transnational histories of art and architecture
- Publications
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Books
Journal articles
- “Nos están matando”: (We Are Being Killed). Journal of Architectural Education, 74(2), 315-318. View this article in WRRO
- There was once an empty site. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 24(2), 129-140. View this article in WRRO
- Introduction: Building word image, a new arena for architectural history. Architectural Histories, 4(1). View this article in WRRO
- Reviewed Work: Camera Constructs: Photography, Architecture and the Modern City by Higgott, Andrew; Wray, Timothy. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 75(2), 228-229. View this article in WRRO
- The “Corporeality” of the Image in Walter Gropius’ Monumentale Kunst und Industriebau Lecture. Intermédialités(24-25).
Chapters
- ‘One wound, two wounds: the body as a site of writing’ In Bartram A, El-Bizri N & Gittens D (Ed.), Recto-Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook. (pp. 125-137). Ashgate
- “Nos están matando”: (We Are Being Killed). Journal of Architectural Education, 74(2), 315-318. View this article in WRRO
- Research group
- Grants
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- DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Short Term grant (2013)
- Getty Research Library Grant (2014)
- Andrew W. Mellon Research Fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) (2016-7) for the multidisciplinary research programme Architecture and/for Photography.
- Teaching activities
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- Director of Humanities
- Internationalisation Co-leader
- First year lecturer architectural humanities modules (ARC103, ARC104)
- MA Architectural Design - Theory and Research in Design module (ARC6853)
- MA Urban Design - History and Theory of Urban Design module (ARC6984)
- PhD Supervisor, MArch and MA thesis supervisor, UG special studies supervisor
- Professional activities
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Sub-editor for Architecture in Latin America and member of Editorial Board Routledge Encyclopaedia of Modernism
Co-founder of the Interest Group ‘Building Word and Image’ at the European Architectural History Network (EAHN)
Member of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA), and of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN)
Part of the scientific committee of Dearquitectura (Dearq) peer reviewed journal from the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
Part of the editorial board of Exploring Architecture from Birkhäuser.
Peer reviewer for Journal Vitruvia, Faculty of Architecture of the Universidad de la República Uruguay, and of the Publication Series ‘Diseño, Arquitectura y Urbanismo en el Siglo XX – el caso Latinoamericano’ School of Architecture, Design and Urban Studies, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago de Chile amongst others.