CCL Associate Director Jessica Sewell gave a talk about her new book, Exploring Gender in Vernacular Architecture (University of Tennessee Press, 2025), to a large crowd at UVA’s School of Architecture on March 21. Using the lenses of single-gender spaces, mixed-gender spaces, and queer spaces, Sewell conveyed her book’s indisputable core argument: gender ideology shapes the built environment. Examples ranging from YWCAs to dormitories to houses for both heterosexual and queer households adeptly demonstrated the importance of gender to the study of buildings and landscapes.

Watch Dr. Sewell’s talk on the School of Architecture’s YouTube page here.

Exploring Gender in Vernacular Architecture is available through University of Tennessee Press here.

Photo credit: Tom Daly