معرفی
Ralph Ghoche serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Barnard College, where he teaches courses on landscape theory, utopian urbanism, diasporas and the city, and modern architecture. Previously, he held teaching positions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pratt Institute, and Vassar College.
His educational background includes professional and post-professional architecture degrees from McGill University and a PhD in architectural history and theory from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Ghoche specializes in 19th-century architecture and urbanism, with particular expertise in French colonial interventions in North Africa. His research examines how the Catholic Church reshaped urban space in Algiers through building, conversion, and erasure of structures to advance the resurrection of Augustinian Christendom. He also investigates theories of ornament, archaeology, and aesthetics in 19th-century French architecture, with a book published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2020.
His scholarly output spans architectural history, theory, and urban studies, consistently engaging with themes of colonialism, urban identity, and the interplay between architecture and cultural narratives. Recent publications address volatile utopias, biological metaphors in architecture, and the political dimensions of urban space.
Professor Ghoche has received prestigious recognition including:
- Chester Dale Fellowship, National Gallery of Art
- Whiting Fellowship
- Institute for Ideas and Imagination Fellowship, Columbia University
- Getty Foundation Library Research Grant
- Barnard College Faculty Research and Inclusive Teaching Grants
- Canadian Centre for Architecture Collections Research Grant
His research is supported by major institutions including the National Gallery of Art, Whiting Foundation, Getty Foundation, and Canada Council for Arts. Ghoche maintains an active international presence through lectures in Paris, Tunis, and Edinburgh, and collaborates with scholars globally on colonial and postcolonial architecture. He demonstrates commitment to inclusive pedagogy through courses like 'Urban Dislocations and the Architecture of Diasporas'.
While not leading a formal research laboratory, Ghoche participates in collaborative academic networks and contributes to critical discourse through conference organization and interdisciplinary research projects focused on architecture's role in cultural and political transformation.
