Anna Sokolina, PhD is a trained architect, curator, Routledge featured author, Founding Chair of Women in Architecture Affiliate Group of Society of Architectural Historians; Advisory Board member of H-SHERA Network, and IAWA Honorary advisor. Research focus: holistic genealogies, women’s contribution, and trajectories of global transitions in architecture; Paper Architecture, architecture and spiritual science, architecture and utopia. Her over 100 publications include The Routledge Companion to Women in Architecture (ed., 2021, 2024), Architecture and Anthroposophy (ed., 2001, 2010, e 2019), “Breaking the Silence” (2021, 2024), “Biology in Architecture” (2016, 2019). Publications in-progress: monograph Architecture of the GDR: The Utopia Code (dissertation into book project); two chapters and an essay in edited volumes.
Sokolina holds a PhD in Theory and History of Architecture, Landmarks Restoration and Preservation ("Interpreting Traditions in Architecture of the GDR") from VNIITAG of the Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences where she worked for 14 years, and a degree in Arts Administration from New York University SPS. An Architecture graduate from Moscow Institute of Architecture (Commendation for Thesis Excellence: "New Avantgarde in Western Architecture of the 1970s-80s: Critique of Postmodernism)"; construction practicum at Moscow Silicate Plant; in 1990 she was affirmed as member of the Union of Architects of SU. She interned at Guggenheim Museum New York, Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and Public Design Commission of New York City at The Mayor’s Office, contributed as docent at The Morgan Library and Museum, and for nine years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Office of Research, and worked as Curator of Exhibitions at R. Tabakman Art Museum in Hudson, NY. During her t-track as member of architecture faculty at Miami University DA+ID she curated the Cage Architecture Gallery, served on Council on Diversity and Inclusion, REEE Curriculum Committee, Havighurst Advisory Committee, and Post-Doctoral Fellowship Selection Committee, arranged and sponsored 6 gifts: to the King Library at Miami University OH, the Hermann Henselmann Archive at Sächsische Landesbibliothek und Universitätsbibliothek TU Dresden, and the IAWA at Virginia Tech.
Sokolina chaired sessions and presented at 88 academic conferences, received 17 grants and recognitions, contributed on the Editorial Board of ARTMargins and as SAH liaison on SHERA Board. She was keynote lecturer in European Academy of the Urban Environment EA-UE Berlin UNESCO Program “Sustainable Settlements,” and at ICAG 2023, Valencia Polytechnic University Spain, and first female curator of itinerant Paper Architecture exhibitions with Association of Junior Architects OMA Moscow (President Sergey Timofeyev) in Germany and France (1992-94) with support by The Senate Berlin, Grün Berlin GMBh, Gemeinde Gröbenzell, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Strasbourg ENSAS, and was interviewed in direct broadcast by RIAS Berlin. Her artworks were on display in 19 exhibitions, five of them at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Employees Art Shows; her 105 paintings and drawings are housed in 23 public and private collections. The IAWA at Virginia Tech holds a collection of her professional records and reports, including early artwork, original typescripts of her graduate theses and PhD dissertation (2 volumes and 25 presentation boards), c. 60 publications, a DVD collection of c. 80 shorts of TV Architecture Gallery Series she converted for students’ viewing, her personal correspondence with the IAWA Founder (Series VI, 39 folders as part of M. Bliznakov Architectural Collection), and over 25 collections of architects from FSU/Russia that she solicited and sponsored for the Archive. The 1x1 IAWA also houses her work.
New York University SPS, Certificate Program in Arts Administration
Department of Arts and Humanities
Study Internships:
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, Curatorial and Education Departments, Fall semester Internship 9-12/2001;
Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, Drawings and Prints Department, Peter Krueger Summer Internship 6-8/2001
Central Academic Research Institute of Theory of Architecture and Urban Planning VNIITAG, PhD, History of Architecture, Landmarks Restoration andPreservation 18.00.01
Thesis: “Interpreting Traditions in Architecture: East Germany 1945-1990.” Acad. adviser Prof. Dr. A.V. Ryabushin, adviser in Germany Prof. Dr. Bruno Flierl, acad. opponent Prof. Dr. A.V. Ikonnikov, opponent Dr. V.S. Tikhonov, supporting acad. institution Moscow Institute of Architecture (MARKHI)
Moscow Institute of Architecture MARKHI, MArch, Architecture
Thesis: “New Avant-garde in Western Architecture 1970-1980: Critical Analyses of the Theory and Practice of Postmodernism.” Acad. adviser Prof. Dr. A.V. Ryabushin, advisers Profs. Dr. O.A. Shvidkovsky, Dr. A.P. Kudryavtsev, Dr. E.A. Goldzamt, Assist. Prof. Dr. V.S. Tikhonov
Nomination for the SAH 2023 Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award, Nomination
Working on the anthology, The Routledge Companion to Women in Architecture has been a true joy of international collaboration and synergy. Most our authors, editors, and reviewers are long-term CAA and SAH members, recipients of many awards also contributing on various SAH and CAA Committees. I am sincerely grateful to my colleagues, now good friends, also for the creative editing support of chapters written by outstanding internationals contributors. At 2022 CAA Annual Conference this volume was featured among Top Ten Books on architecture published by Routledge. Now we received the Nomination for the SAH 2023 Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award!
At conferences we introduced our discoveries in sessions and key-talks. SAH Fellows and members of the Board have supported the book from 2018 to 2021 with graceful reviews, some 6 excerpts are published on Routledge website open to all audiences: www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Women-in-Architecture/Sokolina/p/book/9780367232344.
The idea of this publication was conceived in conversations with colleagues at the International Archive of Women in Architecture at Virginia Tech. I am serving on the IAWA Board since 2002 when the IAWA founder and my dear friend and colleague Prof. Emerita Milka Bliznakov invited my election there as the first honorary advisor after the SAH Richmond Conference. In the book there are chapters by the prominent IAWA President Prof. Donna Dunay, and the IAWA Director Prof. Paola Zellner-Bassett uncovering IAWA’s amazing holdings. Remarkable collections and museums across continents have provided us with copyright revelations, and deans of architecture schools, for instance Pratt’s much admired Dean Dr. Harriett Harriss, have generously contributed their chapters. The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation has published their chapter on her trailblazing work in our book, by ACSA Distinguished Prof. Kathryn H. Anthony and her wonderful associate. There are chapters introducing eye-opening discoveries and women’s diverse and broader professional narratives from Mongolia, Japan, Turkey, Israel, Europe, our sisters from both Americas and the African continent. The Architectural Association in London organized our inaugural vibrant discussion a week after our book saw the light.
We went through two rounds of peer review by prominent academics, and two rounds of publisher’s editorial peer review, and the contents has been transformed, from my initial proposal of 2-volumes to 1-volume edition, many vital chapters introducing a variety of discoveries have been planned for the next edition. I wish we would have more space for publishing all proposed chapters, almost 60 we received, instead of 29. Due to formatting and time constrains we were not able to also include chapters by brilliant colleagues from Ukraine, South-Africa, and another Russian scholar. All our contributors have now developed their own books and award-winning programs.
Milka Bliznakov Scholar, Nomination
Designation 2016-18 for research project "Life to Architecture: Milka Bliznakov Academic Papers at the IAWA," by Milka Bliznakov Research Prize Jury, the IAWA Center at Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design, Blacksburg, VA,
