Shelley Roff, Ph.D.
Professor, Architecture and Planning
Bio
As a professor and scholar my highest mission is to raise public awareness of women’s vital role in the making of the historic architecture and cities of the world, a story not yet fully told in the discipline of the History of Architecture. I actively pursue this though publications, the development of academic webinars and conferences for gender and architecture scholarship, and service to national and international academic associations and editorial boards. My research is centered on women engaged in architectural design, the building trades, and construction labor in medieval and early modern Europe. I am the editor of a forthcoming volume, Women as Designers, Builders, and Critics of the Built Environment before 1800 (Routledge 2026).
My research and teaching specialty is in the art and architecture of medieval and early modern Spain. A current archival project, Building Medieval Valencia, investigates women’s roles in the expansion of Valencia’s urban fabric after the Christian reconquest of the city in the 13th century. An on-going book project, Treasure of the City: The Public Sphere and Civic Urbanism in Late Medieval Barcelona, illustrates the transformative role the construction of public works, monuments and urban spaces played in the crystallization of municipal power in the 14th-15th-century city. This research has been supported by numerous fellowships, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Bogliasco Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, and the Fulbright Foundation.
