Sean Weiss

(he/him)

Associate Professor

Main Affiliation

Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

Areas of Expertise/Research

  • Architectural History
  • Urban History
  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Building

The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

Office

2M21

Phone

212-650-8724

Fax

212-650-6566

Email

sweiss@ccny.cuny.edu

Website

S. Weiss

Sean Weiss

Educational Credentials

  • Ph.D., Art History, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 2013
  • B.A., Honors in Art History, Vassar College, 1997

Teaching Experience

  • Associate Professor, City College of New York, CUNY, 2020-present
  • Chairperson of the Architecture Department, City College of New York, CUNY, 2022-2025
  • Assistant Professor, City College of New York, CUNY, 2013-2020
  • Adjunct Lecturer, City College of New York, CUNY, Spring 2011; Spring 2013
  • Lecturer, Art Department, Colorado College, Fall 2012
  • Lecturer, Department of Fine and Performing Arts, Baruch College, CUNY, 2011-2012

Selected Publications and Recent Research

  • Essays:
    • "Memory and Materiality: Commemorating Canine Companions in Eighteenth-century Britain." In Animal Modernities: Images, Objects, Histories. Edited by Daniel Harkett and Katie Hornstein, pp. 267-283. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2025.
    • "Making Engineering Visible: Photography and the Politics of Potable Water in Modern Paris." Technology and Culture 61:3 (July 2020): 740-771.
    • "Introduction: Cities on Paper: On the Materiality of Paper in Urban Planning." Co-authored introduction to a co-edited special section of Journal of Urban History 46:2 (March 2020): 239-247.
    • "'The Dravert Affair': Paperwork and the Administration of Negligent Street Maintenance in Modern Paris.鈥 Journal of Urban History 46:2 (March 2020): 289-309.
    • "Between Social Engagement and Neoliberalism." In Non-Standard Architectural Productions: Between Aesthetic Experience and Social Action. Edited by Sandra L枚schke, pp. 235-252. London: Routledge, 2019.
    • 鈥淎rchitecture in 2018: Look to the Streets, not the Sky,鈥 The Conversation (4 January 2018).
    • 鈥淭he Empire鈥檚 New Veil,鈥 Log 16 (Spring/Summer 2009): 133-142.
  • Reviews:
    • 鈥淏ook Review of Esther da Costa Meyer, Dividing Paris: Urban Renewal and Social Inequality, 1852-1870.鈥 Journal of the Society Architectural Historians 83:2 (June 2024): 240-242.
    • 鈥淏ook Review of Paul Dobraszczyk and Peter Sealy, eds. Function and Fantasy: Iron Architecture in the Long Nineteenth Century,鈥 Journal of Architectural Education Online (February 2020).
    • 鈥淏ook Review of Martin Bressani, Architecture and the Historical Imagination: Eug猫ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, 1814-1879,鈥 Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 76:2 (June 2017): 245-248.
    • 鈥淓xhibition Review of Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light,鈥 caa.reviews (April 2014).
    • 鈥淏ook Review of Andrew Saint, Architect and Engineer: A Study in Sibling Rivalry,鈥 Casabella 782 (October 2009): 102-103.
    • 鈥淏uilding Review: Specters of Industry: Adaptive Reuse in Paris as Industrial Patrimony,鈥 Journal of Architectural Education 63, No. 1 (October 2009): 136-140.
  • Catalogue Entries and Articles in Reference Works:
    • 鈥淧aris,鈥 Annotated Bibliography with 143 entries. In Oxford Bibliographies in Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, edited by Kevin D. Murphy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
    • 鈥淏ernard Forest de B茅lidor,鈥 鈥淎rcisse de Caumont,鈥 鈥淐harles Garnier,鈥 鈥淎lbert Lenoir,鈥 and 鈥淐harles Percier and Pierre-Fran莽ois-L茅onard Fontaine.鈥 In The Architect鈥檚 Library: A Collection of Notable Books on Architecture at Vassar College, ed. Nicholas Adams. Poughkeepsie: Vassar College Libraries, 2014, 30, 39, 55-57, 70-71, 89-90.
    • 鈥淎rchitectural Design,鈥 鈥淏lueprint,鈥 and 鈥淧erspecta.鈥 In Architettura del Novecento 鈥 Vol. 1, Teorie, Scuole, Eventi, ed. Marco Biraghi and Alberto Ferlenga. Turin: Einaudi, 2012.
  • Recent Conference Papers:
    • Session Chair, 鈥淏uilding Fusions,鈥 Nineteenth-Century Studies Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, 28 March 2025.
    • 鈥淥f Kennels, Species, and Entangled History,鈥 Badgering Architecture: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Co-Habitation with Other Animals, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 10 May 2024.
    • 鈥淚nterspecies Materialities and the Architecture of Kennels in Eighteenth-century Britain,鈥 College Art Association Annual Conference (Panel Title: 鈥淎nimal Subjects鈥), Chicago, IL, 14 February 2024.
    • Session Chair, 鈥淎rchitecture and Interspecies Relations,鈥 Society of Architectural Historians Virtual Conference, 22 September 2023.
    • 鈥淒ogs to Remember: Commemorating Companion Species in Georgian England,鈥 Animal Modernities: Images, Objects, Histories, 1750-1900 (Conference), Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 13 October 2022 and Colby College, Waterville, ME, 12 April 2023.
    • 鈥淜ennels: Producing Healthy Animal Bodies in Georgian England,鈥 Society of Architectural Historians Annual Conference (Panel Title: 鈥淏odies, Buildings, and Health鈥), Pittsburgh, PA, 28 April 2022.
    • 鈥淚nfrastructural Ephemerality and Photographic Monumentality in Late-Nineteenth-century France,鈥 European Architectural History Network International Meeting (Panel Title: Ephemerality and Monumentality in Modern Europe), Edinburgh, Scotland, 3 June 2021.
    • 鈥淢aking Space for Queer Place,鈥 Colloquium Series, Doctoral Program in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 27 February 2020.
    • 鈥淒ocumenting Urban Change as a Civil Wrong: A Case of Photographic Evidence in the Construction of the New York City Subway,鈥 College Art Association Annual Conference (Panel Title: 鈥淒ocumenting Community Change鈥), Chicago, IL, 12 February 2020.
    • 鈥淧hotographs of Portable Bridges,鈥 College Art Association Annual Conference (Panel Title: 鈥淧hotography, Myth, and Architecture鈥), New York, NY, 15 February 2019.
    • 鈥淢aking Maintenance Visible: Photography and the Administration of Urban Upkeep in Modern Paris,鈥 College Art Association Annual Conference (Panel Title: 鈥淩epair and Maintenance in Art, Architecture, and Design鈥), Los Angeles, CA, 23 February 2018.
    • 鈥淭he Pont Mirabeau, Photography, and the Shaping of Urban Collectivities in Third Republic Paris,鈥 Bridge: The Heritage of Connecting Place and Culture Conference, Coalbrookdale Museum and University of Birmingham, UK, 10 July 2017.
    • 鈥淧hotography and the Industrialization of Time on the Parisian Worksite,鈥 Inter-Photography and Architecture Conference, Museo Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, 4 November 2016.
    • 鈥淰isualizing Accountability: Serial Photography and the Restoration of the Pont-Neuf,鈥 Society of Architectural Historians 69th Annual Conference (Panel Title: 鈥淪erial Landscapes鈥), Pasadena, CA, 7 April 2016.
    • 鈥淎rchitecture: Between Social Engagement and Neoliberalism,鈥 Production Sites (Symposium), The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, London, UK, 30 July 2015.