María González Pendás

María González Pendás is an architectural historian of modernity and coloniality of the Spanish transatlantic world whose research explores the intersections of aesthetics, technologies, ideologies, and power through the built environment. Her current book manuscript, Holy Modern: Technocracy, Theocracy and the Architectures of Hispanic Fascism, studies the architectural workings of fascism, technocracy, and the imperial figment of Hispanidad in the second postwar and through the lens of Spain. Other projects have investigated relations of labor and race in México; the coloniality of concrete technologies and innovation across the South Atlantic; and the relationship between technology, religion, and secularism in global modernity.

González Pendás has received grants and fellowships from the Society of Architectural Historians, the Graham Foundation, and the Fulbright Foundation, among others, and was a member of Columbia University's Society of Fellows in the Humanities from 2016–19. She received her Ph.D. in Architecture History and Theory from Columbia University and her Masters in Architecture from the Polytechnic University in Madrid. Prior to joining Cornell, she taught at Vassar College, The Cooper Union, and the Art History Department at Columbia University, where she also coordinated the public humanities initiative of the SOF/Heyman Center for the Humanities to promote civically engaged forms of scholarship and pedagogy.

Academic Research/Specialty Areas

  • Architectural history
  • Architectural theory
  • Public Humanities
  • Iberian, Latin American and Decolonial Studies
  • Global Fascism and Critiques of Ideology
  • Politics of Religion and Secularism
  • Labor History
  • History and Politics of Sciences and Technology

Related News

Classes (Selected)

  • ARCH Global Fascisms, an Architectural History
  • ARCH 1802/5802 History of Architecture II

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

  • Provost's Addressing Racism Seed Grant Initiative, Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, Columbia University (2021)
  • De Montêquin Senior Scholar Research Fellowship, Society of Architectural Historians (2020)
  • Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, Columbia University (2016–19)
  • Carter Manny Award, Citation of Special Recognition, Graham Foundation (2012)
  • Fulbright Fellowship (2006)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

  • "Imperial Abstractions: Architecture and the Technoaesthetics of Postwar Fascism," Colloquium Series, Program in the History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota (2020)
  • "Site as Lab: Displacing Risk in Concrete Modernities," Taubman College, University of Michigan (2019)
  • "Holy Modern: East, West, and the Constructs of Empire in Fascist Spain," Collins/Kaufmann Forum, Department of Art History and Archeology, Columbia University (2018)
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