About this Event
This public evening marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Victorian Society in America London Summer School and offers an insight into one of the longest-running programmes dedicated to the study of nineteenth-century architecture and design. Since 1974, the Summer School has brought participants from across the United States and beyond into direct engagement with the buildings, archives and landscapes of Victorian and Edwardian Britain.
Two talks will reflect the ways in which Victorian studies are being rethought today: Imogen Hart explores new perspectives on Kelmscott Manor through questions of Queerness, while Shahed Saleem examines Muslim architecture within the architectural culture of the period.
Beginning at 5:30pm, the evening concludes with a Q&A and wine reception, wrapping up by 7:30pm.
Speaker Biographies
Imogen Hart is a lecturer in the history of art at Oxford Brookes University. Previously she has worked as a postdoctoral associate and an assistant curator at the Yale Center for British Art and taught in the History of Art Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her publications include Arts and Crafts Objects (Manchester University Press, 2010) and Rethinking the Interior, c. 1867–1896: Aestheticism and Arts and Crafts (Ashgate, 2010), co-edited with Jason Edwards. Imogen is currently working with Thomas Cooper on a co-edited book, Critical Histories of the Arts and Crafts Movement, which is forthcoming from Manchester University Press.
Shahed Saleem is an architect, author and reader in architecture at the University of Westminster. His research and practice explore the architecture of diaspora communities, in particular their relationship to heritage, belonging and nationhood. Shahed’s design and research has been recognised widely. His book, The British Mosque, an Architectural and Social History, was published by Historic England in 2018 and he co-curated the V&A Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2021.
Joshua Mardell FSA is an architectural historian based at the Royal College of Art. His current research focuses on a transatlantic collective biography of women preservationists in the late twentieth century. In support of this project, he has been awarded a Mid-Career Fellowship at the Paul Mellon Centre (2026–27), to examine the life and work of Billa Harrod (1911–2005), founder of the Norfolk Churches Trust. He is also currently editing a special issue of the Journal of Architecture on Queer approaches to space. He is Director of the Victorian Society in America London Summer School.
Image caption: Illustration of the Shah Jahan Mosque at the Oriental Institute, Maybury, Woking, Surrey, built by Gottlieb Wilhelm, 1889. Digital image courtesy of Smith Archive / Alamy
Accessibility at a Glance at the Paul Mellon Centre
✖ Level access
✔ Livestreamed
✔ Recorded
✔ Hearing loop available (please contact [email protected])
✔ Closed caption on Zoom
✖ BSL
PMC Visitor Information - Accessibility Guide & Accessibility Map
If you wish to inform us of any access requirements, please email events@paul-mellon-centre.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Paul Mellon Centre, 16 Bedford Square, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
