Dr. Wanda Katja Liebermann
Education
Harvard University
Doctor of Design
University of California Berkeley
Master of Architecture
University of California Berkeley
BA, Architecture
Contact
Contact
About
Wanda Katja Liebermann is an architectural and urban historian and Associate Professor of Architecture at the Gibbs College of Architecture. She is also a licensed architect who practiced for fifteen years in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Liebermann’s research focuses on theories and practices of architecture and urbanism in relationship to social justice movements in the United States. Her work investigates the recursive dynamics between the evolving politics of identity and inclusion and environmental design.
Her book Architecture’s Disability Problem (Routledge, 2024) is the first scholarly monograph to critically analyze the complex relationship between architecture and disability rights in the United States across pedagogy, policy, and practice. The book uses theories from disability studies and science and technology studies to reveal hidden dimensions of architectural objects, practices, and culture. Its aim is to challenge the discipline’s narrow perception and response to disabled bodies.
Liebermann’s writing has appeared in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Future Anterior, the Journal of Architecture, the Journal of Design History, and several edited anthologies. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, a UC Berkeley Arcus Endowment, the Arnold J. Brunner Grant, and Graham Foundation Grant. Liebermann received a Doctor of Design from Harvard University and a Master of Architecture and Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from UC Berkeley.
Liebermann has extensive teaching experience in design practice and architectural history, theory, and criticism. Her pedagogical approach is informed by an interdisciplinary social historical lens, which connects theory with empirical examples, offering students tools for formal and critical inquiry.
Selected Publications
“Writing on the Wall: A Social Analysis of the Harvard Northwest Science Building.” Telesis IV, “The Essence” (2024).
“Architecture, Science, and Disabled Citizenship.” In Making Disability Modern: Design Histories, edited by Bess Williamson, and Elizabeth Guffey, 113-30. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020.
“Whose Heritage? Architectural Preservation and Disabled Access in Boston and San Francisco.” Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism 16, no. 1 (2019): 35-56.
“Teaching Embodiment: Disability, Subjectivity, and Architectural Education.” Journal of Architecture 24, no. 6 (2019): 803-28.
“The Crowd in Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing as a Pragmatic Research Method.” Co-authored with Lina Eklund and Isabell Stamm. First Monday 24, no. 10. (2019). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9206.
“Rehabilitating the Invalid Body: Architecture and Citizenship in Jaap Bakema’s Design for a Dutch Postwar Village for the Disabled.” In Architecture and the Body, Science and Culture, edited by Kim Sexton, 196-216. New York: Routledge, 2018.
“Humanizing Modernism? Jaap Bakema’s Het Dorp, a Village for Disabled Citizens.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 75, no. 2 (June 2016): 158-81.
“The Right to Live in the World: Architecture, Inclusion, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.” In Spatializing Politics: Essays on Power and Place, edited by Delia Wendel, and Fallon Samuels Aidoo, 273-300. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2016.
“Crossing the Threshold: Problems and Prospects for Accessible Housing Design.” Harvard University (Joint Center for Housing Studies: August 2013). https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/research-areas/working-papers/crossing-threshold-problems-and-prospects-accessible-housing-design.
Professional Credentials
Licensed Architect, California C31573 (2008-Present).
Selected Awards
Graham Foundation Individual Grant, book project Architecture’s Problem with Disability.
Visiting Faculty Fellowship in Design for Spatial Justice and the Walsh Visiting Professorship in the School of Architecture & Environment in the College of Design at the University of Oregon, for winter & spring terms (declined).
Arnold W. Brunner Grant, AIANY, Center for Architecture
National Science Foundation Science and Technology Studies Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant
John R. Meyer Fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University
Harvard University Real Estate Academic Initiative Grant
Penny White Award, Harvard Graduate School of Design
AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal & Certificate, sole recipient, master of architecture