Teaching Histories of Built Environments: Online Certificate Course by CAU

The Teaching Histories for Built Environments was an online certificate course by the Center for Research on Architecture and Urbanism, CAU. Held for five weeks, this online course, focused on teaching Histories of Built Environments oriented toward established educators, researchers, and new teachers.  It brought together scholars from India and abroad to create a seven-week program that provided inter-disciplinary approaches, diverse methods, and discursive thinking for developing courses on histories of built environments.  

The course also introduced participants to the vast array of digital tools and resources that have become available over the last two decades. The tutors of the course were Dr. Mohammad Gharipour, Morgan State University, USA; Dr. Venugopal Maddipatti, Ambedkar University, India; Dr. Kaiwan Mehta, CEPT University; India; Dr. Annapurna Garimella, Art, Resources and Teaching Trust, India, and Curt Gambetta, Princeton University, USA.

The course was structured into five thematic modules, each offered by a different lecturer covering specific topics that allowed teachers to think about the genealogies pedagogical methods and teaching practices, and develop structures for designing and teaching architectural history courses. Each module had three lectures-discussions and short presentation assignments.

At the end of the course, the participants developed a teaching module with a written description, a week-by-week course outline, readings, and assignments. The thematic modules of this online certificate course were: Pedagogical and Research Frameworks; Making Connections Across Disciplines; Ways of Doing and Teaching; and Crafting Architectural History.