Karen Burns (academic)

Karen Burns (born 1962) is an architectural historian and theorist based in Melbourne, Australia. She is currently a senior lecturer in architecture at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne.

Karen Burns
Born1962
NationalityAustralian
Alma materMonash University,
RMIT University
OccupationArchitect

Early years and education

Born in January 1962, Burns grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Beaumaris. Her feminist activism first found expression in 1978 when she worked as a volunteer at a newly established refuge for women and children escaping family violence.

Burns studied English literature and art history at Monash University, the latter with Patrick McCaughey and Conrad Hamann.[1] She was Hamann's first honours student. Burns graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (hons) in 1984 and a Master of Arts in 1987. She began studying architecture at RMIT University in 1986, and began editing the magazine Transition the same year. Her PhD, "Urban Tourism, 1851-53: sightseeing, representation and The Stones of Venice" was completed in 1999 at the School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, University of Melbourne.[2]

Academic career

Burns has held academic positions at a number of universities in Melbourne. She began her academic career at RMIT University (1986–1995) and then joined the Department of English and Cultural Studies and Department of Fine Arts, Classics and Archaeology, University of Melbourne (1997–1999, 2001). She spent three years at the Centre for Ideas, Victorian College of the Arts (2002–2004), of which she was Acting Director in 2002–2003. She joined the new Department of Architecture at Monash University in 2008 and was later appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, a position she still holds.[3][4][5]

Her academic research focuses on three principal areas: Australian frontier housing and problems of interpretation, late-twentieth-century feminist architectural history and theory, and alliances between architects, aesthetics and manufacturers in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. In relation to the last topic she is working on a book titled Object Lessons: Demonstrating Victorian Design Reform, 1835–1870.[6]

Burns was an active researcher on the Australian Research Council funded project Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architectural Profession: women, work and leadership (2011-2014), which was led by Naomi Stead of the University of Queensland.[7] One of its key outcomes was Parlour: women, equity, architecture. Burns was instrumental in establishing this organisation with colleagues from the research project, and was responsible for coining the name Parlour.[8] This can be understood in the context of her long engagement in feminist and social activism in architecture.

Burns' has given invited keynote presentations at three conferences: Fabulations, the Annual Conference of SAHANZ, University of Tasmania, July 2012; Interstices, University of Tasmania, November 2011; Whirlwinds Symposium, Sexuate Subjects: Politics, Poetics and Ethics, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, December 2010.[9][10][11][12] She has presented her research work at many more conferences and symposia and is an active member of the academic community.

Editorial work and architectural criticism

Burns has played important roles in a range of publications, both scholarly and professional, as editor, contributor and advisor.

Transition: Discourse on Architecture

She was editor of Transition: Discourse on Architecture, an influential[13] quarterly journal published by RMIT University, from July 1986 – December 1991. This saw her edit 17 issues of the publication.[14] From 1987, this was an editorial partnership with Harriet Edquist.[13][15] Highlights of the journal over this period include:

  • no. 25 (1988) Women & Architecture
  • no. 26 (1988) The Bicentennial Issue
  • no. 27/28 (1989) New Urbanism, which included a 25-page review of the New Parliament House by James Weirick.

Transition was also a vehicle for exhibitions and competitions, including:

  • 1991 Transition Companion City Competition. The competition "explored the future for our cities through ideas of design, energy conservation, planning and the environment" and also resulted in exhibition at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) curated by Burns and Edquist.[15][16][17]
  • 1989 Transition 10th Anniversary Conference. This focussed on the topic Robin Boyd', the Architect as Critic, and was accompanied by a tour of Boyd's houses and an exhibition (curated with Philip Goad) of Boyd's publications at the State Library of Victoria.[18] The conference papers were published together with Boyd's catalgoue raisonnee in 1992.

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Art

Burns edited four issues of this publication, which is the journal of the Art Association of Australia & New Zealand between 2004 and 2006.[19]

Editorial boards

Burns also sits on the editorial boards of a number of academic journals: Fabrications (journal of SAHANZ), Interstices, Ultima Thule and Architectural Theory Review..[20] She has been a contributing editor to Architecture Australia.

Criticism

Architectural criticism by Burns has been published in a range of professional journals including Architecture Australia, Architectural Review Australia, Monument and Landscape Architecture Australia.[21]

Activism and public engagement

Burns has a long history of involvement with feminist activism and social justice issues in architecture. She is a founding member of the Melbourne-based organisation E1027: Women in Architecture (1990) – established with Harriet Edquist and others.[22] In 1991 the organisation had 80 members, including architects Maggie Edmond, Anne Cunningham, Ann Keddie, Mary Ruth Sindrey, Val Austin, Suzanne Dance, Eli Giannini, Mardi Butcher, Jill Garner and Anna Ely. Members also included women artists such as Kathy Temin, Sarah Curtis, Lauren Berkowitz and Jan Nelson.[23]

In 1991 Burns curated the exhibition Insight Out with Anna Horne.[24] This took the form of architectural installations at 200 Gertrude Street and five other outdoor sites in Fitzroy, Melbourne. The exhibition examined urban change, gentrification, housing stress and historical memory.

In 2013 Burns played a key role in establishing Parlour: women, equity, architecture, with Justine Clark, Naomi Stead and others.[25][26] Developed as a "space to speak" for women in architecture, this provides research, resources and informed opinion about gender equity and architecture. Writing by Burns on Parlour includes:

  • Who Wants to be a Woman Architect?[27]
  • The Elephant in our Parlour: Everyday Sexism in Architecture[28]
  • Why Do Women Leave?[29]

Parlour also ran the 2012 symposium, Transform: Altering the Future of Architecture, which was co-convened by Burns with colleagues Justine Clark and Naomi Stead and hosted by the University of Melbourne.[30][31]

Selected publications

Exhibitions

Burns has curated a number of exhibitions. These include:

References
  1. "Citation For Honorary Fellow – Conrad Hamann" (PDF). Royal Australian Institute of Architects. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  2. Burns, Karen (1999). "Urban tourism, 1851-53: sightseeing, representation and the Stones of Venice". Minerva access. University of Melbourne.
  3. "Lunchtime Art Forum - Dr Karen Burns (Monash University) Research in Architecture, Monash University". monash.edu. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  4. "DR KAREN BURNS - The University of Melbourne". www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  5. Melbourne, Melbourne School of Design | University of. "Melbourne School of Design | University of Melbourne | Dr Karen Burns". Melbourne School of Design. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  6. "DR KAREN BURNS - The University of Melbourne". www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  7. "Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architecture Profession: Women, Work, and Leadership - UQ Researchers". researchers.uq.edu.au. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  8. "Research - Parlour". archiparlour.org. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  9. "Confirmed Invited Speakers". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  10. "2011 Interstices Under Construction Symposium: Technics, Memory and the Architecture of History - Events". www.events.utas.edu.au. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  11. "SAHANZ Conferences". www.sahanz.net. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  12. "Update: Technics, Memory and the Architecture of History". Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts. 4 October 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  13. Sawyer, Mark (2015). Call-and-Response: Group Formation and Agency enacted through an Architectural Magazine, its Letters and Editorials (PDF). Architecture Institutions and Change, Proceedings of SAHANZ. 32. ISBN 978-0-646-94298-8.
  14. "Transition (Collingwood, Vic.) - Details - Trove". trove.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  15. "Companion City | ACCA". www.accaonline.org.au. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  16. London, Geoffrey (1995). "Companion City Forum at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art" (PDF). Transition: Discourse on Architecture.
  17. Stephens, John (30 March 1991). "A Wild Ride for Planning Theory" (PDF). The Age. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  18. "Robin Boyd : the architect as critic : an exhibition at the La Trobe Library of Victoria, 1989 / [editors: Karen Burns, Harriet Edquist]. - Version details - Trove". trove.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  19. "journal - AAANZ | The Art Association of Australia and New Zealand". AAANZ | The Art Association of Australia and New Zealand. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  20. "FABRICATIONS latest issue". www.sahanz.net. Archived from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  21. "Dr Karen Burns". ArchitectureAU. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  22. Burns, Karen (2012). Edquist, Harriet; Vaughan, Laurene (eds.). E1027: from Modernist House to Feminist Collective. The Design Collective: An Approach to Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-4027-9.
  23. Burns, Karen (2012). "E1027 Women's Architecture Collaborative - Parlour". archiparlour.org. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  24. Hennessy, Peter; Piccinini, Patricia (1992). "Insight/ Out. Exhibition at the 200 Gertrude Street Gallery, 3-25 July 1992". Transition (39): 68–75.
  25. "Welcome to Parlour - Parlour". archiparlour.org. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  26. Tweeddale, Anna (15 January 2013). "Interview: Justine Clark & Dr Karen Burns, Parlour | Australian Design Review". www.australiandesignreview.com. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  27. "Who wants to be a Woman Architect? - Parlour". archiparlour.org. May 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  28. "The Elephant in our Parlour: everyday sexism in architecture - Parlour". archiparlour.org. 20 August 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  29. "Why do women leave? - Parlour". archiparlour.org. 16 November 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  30. "Transform: Altering the Future of Architecture - Parlour". archiparlour.org. 12 March 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  31. Kalms, Niki (2013). "Transform: Altering the Future of Architecture". ArchitectureAU. Architecture Media. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  32. Robin Boyd : the architect as critic / an exhibition at the La Trobe Library, State Library of Victoria - Details - Trove. trove.nla.gov.au. Melbourne : Transition Publishing. 1989. ISBN 9780731668007. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
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