ETTINGER MC ENULTY, CATHERINE ROSE

Catherine Rose Ettinger was trained as an architect and holds a Master’s degree in historic preservation and a doctorate in architecture from the UNAM (2001). Her interests in research revolve around the complex relationship between tradition and modernity and she has published on both vernacular and modern architecture in Mexico. Her participation in national research projects with colleagues from the major Mexican universities has led to edited volumes on Mexican modern architecture including La situación actual de la historiografía de la arquitectura mexicana (UNAM y UMSNH, 2008), Otras modernidades (Porrúa, 2013) Segunda Modernidad Urbano Arquitectónica. Lecciones significativas de la Segunda Modernidad en México (UAM, 2014,) and Imaginarios de modernidad y tradición Arquitectura del siglo XX en América Latina (Porrúa, 2015), among others. She has also contributed to local histories of architecture through the edited volumes Modernidades Arquitectónicas. Morelia 1925-1960 (2010) and De Barrio de San Pedro a Bosque Cuauhtémoc de Morelia (2012).

Her particular interest in the articulation of modernity and tradition led her to do research on the transformation of vernacular settings in the state of Michoacán with the introduction of modern methods of building related to the phenomenon of international migration. Her book on this topic, La transformación de la arquitectura vernácula en Michoacán. Materialidad, espacio y representación (UMSNH / COLMICH, 2010) which advocates understanding the process of transformation as the basis for designing preservation strategies, won the Francisco de la Maza Award in 2011 given by the Mexican Council for Culture and Arts and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (CONACULTA-INAH) for the best research in the field of preservation of architecture and urbanism.

Her recent book La arquitectura mexicana desde afuera (MAPorrua, 2017) explores the construction of an imaginary of Mexican architecture from the perspective of the United States and relies on the revision of literature, postcards, the houses of expats as well as articles and books published between the 1930s and the 1980s on Mexican architecture. In 2018 she published on volume on Richard Neutra and Latin America (Arquitónica, 2018), and an English version is forthcoming published with the support of the Neutra Institute for Survival through Design. In 2021 she published a monographic work on Lázaro Cárdenas’s home in Pátzcuaro: La Quinta Eréndira de Lázaro Cárdenas. De casa campestre a sede del CREFAL (UMSNH, CREFAL, INBAL).

Since 1998 she has taught and advised theses in graduate programs related to heritage preservation, teaching both research methods, courses on the history of modern architecture and theory of historic preservation. She has advised doctoral dissertations and Master’s theses in preservation and architectural history.

She has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University and at the University of Texas in Austin. She is a level III National Researcher designated by Mexico’s National Council on Science and Technology.