Christopher Thomas
Associate Professor
Art History & Visual Studies
University of Victoria
Canada
Biography
Born in Ottawa, Chris Thomas has, not surprisingly devoted most of his career to public, especially federal-government architecture and design. After earning a Bachelor’s degree at York University, he pursued advanced work at the University of Toronto (MA) and Yale University (PhD), where his work was supervised by the eminent American architectural historian Vincent Scully. Chris is best known for survey and specialized articles on 19th-early-20th-century architecture in Canada, and its national signification; and, internationally, for his book The Lincoln Memorial and American Life and other studies on the work of the memorial’s architect (Henry Bacon) and the monument’s use in national myth and ritual. These interests overlap themes of theology, the Sacred, and the mystical that have recurred in his work.
Research Interest
Modern architectural history, 1750 to the present,Western architectural history,Canadian art & architectural history,Art & architecture of the United States,Social & cultural history of Canada and the U.S.,Sacred architecture and meaning
Publications
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Johnson KJ. The Universal Church in the Segregated City: Doing Catholic Interracialism in Chicago, 1915-1963 (Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago).
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Windsor-Liscombe R. FAÇADES OF CIVILITY AND JURISPRUDENCE: Mapping Classical Tradition and Chimera. The Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada. 2014.
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Thomas CA. The Lincoln Memorial & American Life. Princeton University Press; 2002.
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Knox PL. The restless urban landscape: economic and sociocultural change and the transformation of metropolitan Washington, DC. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 1991 Jun 1;81(2):181-209.
