Kathleen James-Chakraborty

James-Chakraborty grew up in Chestertown on the Eastern Shore region of Maryland.{{Cite journal|last=James-Chakraborty|first=Kathleen|date=2014|title=House 103|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3n91f3ms|journal=Room One Thousand|language=en|volume=2|issue=2|issn=2328-4161}} In 1966 she attended Chestertown Elementary, where she was in the first year of desegregation.{{Cite web|url=https://talbotspy.org/50th-anniversary-of-the-desegregation-eastern-shore-schools-by-kathleen-james-chakraborty/|title=50th Anniversary of the Desegregation Eastern Shore Schools by Kathleen James-Chakraborty|last=Spy Desk|website=The Talbot Spy|date=6 September 2016 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-15}} She spent three semester at a boarding school in New England, where she spent time in a library designed by Louis Kahn.{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishhumanities.com/humanities-and-me/kathleen-james-chakraborty/|title=Kathleen James-Chakraborty {{!}} Irish Humanities Alliance|website=www.irishhumanities.com|access-date=2019-02-17}} She remained friends with her elementary school teacher, Mrs Wilson, until her death at the age of ninety-one. She earned her bachelor's degree at Yale University in 1982.{{Cite web|url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/11/17/womens-issues-progress-at-architecture-school/|title=Women's issues progress at architecture school|last=McCoole|first=Veena|website=yaledailynews.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-15|year=2016}} She earned an MA and PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 1990.{{Cite web|url=https://people.ucd.ie/kathleen.jameschakraborty/about|title=Kathleen James-Chakraborty Profile {{!}} University College Dublin|website=people.ucd.ie|access-date=2019-02-15}} She moved to the University of Minnesota School of Architecture as an assistant professor.

She served as the Gambrinus Fellow at the Technical University of Dortmund.{{Cite web|url=http://criticalarchitecture.org/center/prof-dr-kathleen-james-chakraborty/|title=Prof. Dr. Kathleen James-Chakraborty|website=CCSA|language=de-DE|access-date=2019-02-15}} She became an assistant professor of architecture at University of California, Berkeley in 1992, a tenured associate professor in 1997, and a full professor in 2006.{{Citation|last=College|first=Taubman|title=Kathleen James-Chakraborty, University College Dublin|date=2010-11-17|url=https://vimeo.com/16932541|access-date=2019-02-17}} James-Chakraborty was appointed professor of art history at University College Dublin in 2007. She was head of the School of Art History from 2007 to 2010. She spent the fall semester in 2015 and 2016 at Yale School of Architecture.{{Cite web|url=http://ucdclinton.ie/kathleen-james-chakraborty/|title=Kathleen James-Chakraborty – UCD Clinton Institute|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-15}}{{Cite web|url=https://centerbrook.com/events/chakraborty_to_take_lecture_series_stage|title=Centerbrook Architects and Planners > Chakraborty to Take Lecture Series Stage|website=centerbrook.com|access-date=2019-02-15|archive-date=16 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216094205/https://centerbrook.com/events/chakraborty_to_take_lecture_series_stage|url-status=dead}}

Her work considers modern art, modernism and nationalism. She has extended the received perspectives of German modernism. James-Chakraborty has investigated the role of women in architecture and design.{{Cite web|url=https://www.architecture.yale.edu/courses/13903-expanding-the-canon-making-room-for-other-voices|title=Expanding the Canon: Making Room for Other Voices|website=Yale Architecture|language=en|access-date=2019-02-15}}{{Cite web|url=https://architecture.mit.edu/architecture-and-urbanism/lecture/expanding-canon-women-architecture|title=Expanding the Canon: Women in Architecture {{!}} MIT Architecture|website=architecture.mit.edu|access-date=2019-02-15|archive-date=5 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205044057/https://architecture.mit.edu/architecture-and-urbanism/lecture/expanding-canon-women-architecture|url-status=dead}} She also studied the Ruhrgebiet and recent German architecture.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sas.upenn.edu/arthistory/events/kathleen-james-chakraborty-remembering-modernism-germany-berlin-versus-ruhrgebiet%E2%80%9D|title=Kathleen James-Chakraborty, "Remembering Modernism in Germany: Berlin versus the Ruhrgebiet" {{!}} Penn History of Art|website=www.sas.upenn.edu|access-date=2019-02-15}} In 2016 she arranged the European Architectural History Network, which was held in Dublin Castle. Her 2017 book Architecture since 1400 was a global survey of architecture, described by Murray Fraser as a "scintillating overview".{{Cite journal|last=Fraser|first=Murray|date=2016-07-12|title=Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Architecture Since 1400 . Minneapolis, London: Minnesota University Press, 2014|url=http://journals.openedition.org/abe/3090|journal=ABE Journal|language=en|issue=9–10|doi=10.4000/abe.10990|issn=2275-6639|doi-access=free|archive-date=5 February 2020|access-date=17 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205041057/https://journals.openedition.org/abe/3090|url-status=dead}}

While others have characterized contemporary Berlin’s museums and memorials as postmodern, Kathleen James-Chakraborty argues that these environments are examples of an “architecture of modern memory” that is much older, more complex, and historically contingent. She reveals that churches and museums repaired and designed before 1989 in Düren, Hanover, Munich, Neviges, Pforzheim, Stuttgart, and Weil am Rhein contributed to a modernist precedent for the relationship between German identity and the past developed since then in the Ruhr region and in Berlin.{{Cite book|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/57340|title=Modernism as Memory: Building Identity in the Federal Republic of Germany|last=James-Chakraborty|first=Kathleen|date=2018|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=9781452956251|language=en}}

She helped organise the 2019 National Gallery of Ireland conference Bauhaus Effects.{{Citation|last=UCD College of Arts and Humanities|title=Dr Kathleen James Chakraborty Bauhaus Effects 2019|date=2019-02-13|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZ003U2H_Q|access-date=2019-02-17}} She served from 2016-2021 on the board of the National Museum of Ireland.{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/national-museum-of-ireland-board-appointed-1.2690588|title=National Museum of Ireland board appointed|last=Hilliard|first=Mark|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=2019-02-17}}

Professor James-Chakraborty has criticised Ireland's obsession with university rankings, particularly QS rankings and the way in which this skews the allocation of resources.{{cite news|title=Universities and the QS rankings|newspaper=The Irish Times |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/universities-and-the-qs-rankings-1.4275841| access-date=12 June 2020}}

• 2011 Elected to the Royal Irish Academy{{Cite web|url=https://www.ria.ie/kathleen-james-chakraborty|title=Kathleen James-Chakraborty|date=2015-10-19|website=Royal Irish Academy|language=en|access-date=2019-02-15}}
• 2018 Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Humanities{{Cite web|url=https://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-newsletter/sah-newsletter-ind/2019/02/13/kathleen-james-chakraborty-receives-ria-gold-medal-for-humanities|title=Kathleen James-Chakraborty Receives RIA Gold Medal for Humanities|website=www.sah.org|access-date=2019-02-15}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/gold-medals-for-stars-of-research-in-ireland-1.3792458|title=Gold medals for stars of research in Ireland|author=Kevin O'Sullivan|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=2019-02-17}}

• {{Cite journal|last=Jefferies|first=Matthew|date=1998-01-01|title=Erich Mendelsohn and the Architecture of German Modernism|journal=Journal of Design History|volume=11|issue=2|pages=186–187|doi=10.1093/jdh/11.2.186|issn=0952-4649}}
• {{cite book|chapter=On the Spirit of the Age|date=2017-07-05|title=Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time|pages=1–37|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781315128245|doi=10.4324/9781315128245-1}}
• {{Cite book|last=James-Chakraborty|first=Kathleen|date=2002-09-06|title=German Architecture for a Mass Audience|doi=10.4324/9780203449448|isbn=9780203449448}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JVp9QgAACAAJ|title=Bauhaus Culture: From Weimar to the Cold War|last=James-Chakraborty|first=Kathleen|date=2006|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=9780816646876|language=en}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://www.routledge.com/India-in-Art-in-Ireland-1st-Edition/James-Chakraborty/p/book/9781472458995|title=India in Art in Ireland|date=2017-07-05|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781315092744|editor-last=James-Chakraborty|editor-first=Kathleen}}
• {{Cite book|title=Architecture since 1400|last=James-Chakraborty|first=Kathleen|date=2014-01-01|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=9780816673964|doi = 10.5749/minnesota/9780816673964.001.0001}}
• {{Citation|title=Introduction|work=Modernism as Memory|pages=1–12|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=9781452956251|doi=10.5749/j.ctt1pwt7w6.3|year=2018}}
• [http://muse.jhu.edu/book/57340 Conclusion] The Kolumba Museum in Cologne, Modernism as Memory : Building Identity in the Federal Republic of Germany. :237-244

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