Conway’s director, Paul Cawood Hellmund, has announced the appointment of Dr. Nina Antonetti as Conway’s Distinguished Visiting Historian of the Landscape. He commented “Nina is one of those rare people who combines vast historical knowledge with a keen interest in contemporary ecological and societal issues related to the broader landscape. She’s an inspiring collaborator.”
Dr. Antonetti, an architectural and landscape historian, is a founding member of landscape studies and food studies at Smith College in Massachusetts. She has previously served as visiting historian at the Conway School, and is a fellow at the Center for Creative Solutions at Marlboro College, Vermont.
She completed a book on Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, a pioneer of sustainable landscape architecture. In another book project, Antonetti promotes Keney Park – one of the largest urban public spaces in New England, but considered one of the most dangerous places in Hartford, Connecticut – as a case study for how urban landscapes can help mitigate climate change and mobilize citizenry.
Kate Cholakis ’11, a graduate of both Smith College and the Conway School, said “Nina is a pioneer in the fields of design and planning, linking interdisciplinary studies with the built environment in both her university teaching and scholarship. This connection is essential to improving the sustainability of our world, and central to Conway’s mission. She’s an inspiration and an invaluable resource.”
Dr. Antonetti received her doctorate in landscape and architectural history from the Victorian Study Centre, University of London, and has held research positions in the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
In 2012, she was invited, along with Jane Goodall and Bill McKibben, by the Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch to be a participant in the Halki Summit on Global Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability, a gathering of activists, scientists, journalists, business leaders, theologians, and academics working across intellectual boundaries.
