Learning and teaching with the ‘body’: pedagogical hatches from Jennifer Bloomer

Abstract

In 1999, I ran a studio at Iowa State University, College of Design, at the invitation of Jennifer Bloomer, who was working as a professor there. This invitation was motivated by her interest in my work and my PhD in Women Studies under Hélène Cixous’s supervision and indeed by Jennifer’s proximity with Cixous’s thinking and French Theory as a whole. The studio, inspired by Bloomer’s work and by the tradition of thinking the ‘body’ in French Theory, was focused on ‘Bodies and Cities’, highlighting the role of the body as a ‘para-theoretical device’ that would help students to look differently at urban contexts. This was done through a feminist pedagogical approach inspired and guided by Jennifer and her own references: bell hooks, Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous, Jacques Derrida, Paulo Freire, Roland Barthes, and Sigmund Freud. Taking an autobiographic route, this paper revisits Bloomer’s contribution to the feminist turn in architectural theory and education, which started in the 1990s, addressing her particular role as feminist thinker, educator, colleague, and friend in shaping this route. The paper reframes some of Bloomer’s ‘tropes’ like ‘mopping’, ‘hatching’, ‘quilt-making’, and ‘real life’, together with other feminist concepts which were influential to my own route in theory, practice, and education, to speak about how I understand Bloomer’s legacy and how this legacy can be further taken today to address current challenges.