About

Assistant Professor David Rifkind teaches architectural history and theory at Florida International University. His research examines architectural responses to processes of modernization, with special emphasis on the relationships between modern architecture and political forces during Italy’s twenty-year period of fascist rule. He has lectured widely and published several articles on the subject, and will publish his first book, The Battle for Modernism: Quadrante and the Politicization of Architectural Discourse in Fascist Italy, with Marsilio Editori next year. His subsequent research on Italian colonial urban planning and architecture in East Africa is the first such work to integrate extensive field study in Ethiopia with archival research in Italy and the United States. His article on Italian colonial urbanism in Ethiopia will appear next year in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. This continuing project comprises the first component in a long-term study of modern architecture and urban planning throughout Africa.