Tara Bissett

Tara Bissett teaches architectural history and theory from 1500 to our contemporary period. She specializes in the history of craft and labour in architecture, contemporary architectural history and theory, and early modern (global) architecture. Courses taught at the University of Waterloo include Contemporary Architectural Theory, Ornament and its Discontents, Architecture and Media, and Architecture: Pre-Renaissance to Reformation.

Tara received her PhD from the University of Toronto. Her dissertation, entitled Architecture as Idea in Early Modern France, analyzed architecture’s relationship to craft labour practices, the ethos of ornament, and the other arts in the wake of the new printing press technology. She was a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellow; her research has been supported by numerous grants including the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and the University of Toronto’s centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World.

Her current research projects continue to explore the relationships between craft, work, and media in architecture from 1900 to our current period, with a focus on craft (and informal) economies, women in architecture, and the histories of co-op and alternative housing.