Christopher Thomas



Old Parliament Building, Ottawa.
Fuller and Jones. 1859-66.

PhD Yale University
Associate Professor

Fine Arts Building 131

By appointment| Phone 250-721-6301

cthomas@uvic.ca

Areas of Research

  • 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

Courses

2012-2013
HA 223: Introduction to Western Architecture
HA 368A: History of Early Canadian Art
HA 387B: 20th Century Architecture in Europe and North America
HA 392: Special Topics in History in Art: Sacred and Mythical
HA 465/554: Advanced Seminar in 19th and/or 20th Century Architecture: TBD

2011-2012
HA 368B: History of 20th Century Canadian Art
HA 387B: 20th Century Architecture in Europe and North America
HA 465/554: Advanced Seminar in 19th and/or 20th Century Architecture:The Sacred and Mythical

2010-2011
HA 223: Introduction to Western Architecture
HA 292: Selected Themes in History in Art: Architecture: The Mythical and Sacred
HA 465/554: Advanced Seminar in 19th and/or 20th Century Architecture: Architecture & Ornament: Art Nouveau to Contemporary Neo-Expressionism
HA 501: Colloquium in Theories and Practices

Brief 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.

Selected Professional Achievements


Andrew Mellon dissertation and postdoctoral fellowships, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship, 1992-4

Two national SSHRC faculty research fellowships, 2000-4 and .2005-11

Selected Publications

Books

The Architecture of the West Building, National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC, 1992)

The Lincoln Memorial and American Life (Princeton U. P., 2002)
Inclusion in the anthology Architecture and the Construction of the Canadian Fabric, ed. Rhodri Windsor Liscombe, UBC Press, in final production).

 

  • HA 465 / 554 — Postwar Modernist Architecture on Southern Vancouver Island

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