Marlene Jacknis, a pioneering woman architect from the Princeton University-SoA (1968) & Happy Women's History Month!
Marlene Jacknis,
a woman graduate of the Princeton University, School of Architecture
(1968-1971)
Photograph by Meral Ekincioglu, New Jersey.
(All rights reserved, please, do not copy or share).
Happy Women's History Month!
Following
my appointment with Robert Geddes, the first Dean of the Princeton University,
School of Architecture and his sharing some documents on early women architects
from the School, Marlene Jacknis kindly accepted
me to meet and talk with me in New Jersey. She was an inspiring chapter of my advanced academic research project at the MIT-HTC.
Having her Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College in 1967, Marlene was admitted by the committee
at the Princeton University, School of Architecture
(“Old Boys School”) in “1968” when the SoA began its co-education in its
his/herstory. As she expressed during our conversation in New Jersey, there were no formal architecture or engineering courses at that college at that time. She took
only one course in
architectural history at
Vassar College. Then, in 1968, she
was interviewed by Michael Graves and began her education at that university as a qualified student
even though she had no prior architectural degree. With this background, she had to take some additional courses and was the first woman to take the basic course in landscape architecture at the school as she has underlined
in our conversation. With her accomplished performance, she received
her Master degree in Architecture, with her master thesis,
“United Nation Expansion:
Manhattan” at the Princeton University, School of Architecture in 1971.
See my academic presentation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology posted by Princeton University: • Ekincioglu, M. (invited speaker), 2017, “The Grand Flirtation: Feminist Operation of Architecture at Princeton University in the 1960s - the 1970s", Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Woman and Gender Studies Program, Intellectual Forum Series, Cambridge, MA, October 19.
https://blogs.princeton.edu/mudd/2010/11/coeducation-at-the-graduate-school/comment-page-1, last accessed on 3.8.2024.
With Robert Geddes at Princeton University, New Jersey.
*The sound records of my conversations with Robert Geddes and Marlene Jacknis are in my personal archive. As Marlene Jacknis indicated, there is no scholarly
or architectural research on her architecture education and professional career.
In light of this, I am “the first scholar” to study her education and career in architecture
and open up a new chapter in the herstory of the Princeton University, School
of Architecture whose co-education began in “1968” (under the academic leadership of Professor Robert Geddes, the first dean of the Princeton University-School of Architecture, at the graduate level).
** Please, do not copy or share any
information without permission. This is a part of advanced academic research
project conducted by me at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology-History, Theory and Architecture Program. The academic sponsor of
this advanced research project was MIT, all written, visual materials and
records were submitted to MIT, and its all rights reserved. My book project in in-progress.
With my thanks to her & Robert Geddes....
For my conversation with Marlene:
With my thanks to her & Robert Geddes....
For my conversation with Marlene:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPfMTEHUVek&t=4s
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpfq5G_VweU&t=99s