Fulbright Fellow to Norway! 2020-2021
Well, the news has been out since May but I’m finally getting around to actually writing about it on my website. I’m so honored and humbled to say that my Fulbright proposal “Ethnicity, Class, and Regional Building Styles: The Foundation of Immigrant Architecture” was selected to receiving funding for 2020-2021!
Check out the press release on Iowa State’s website here: https://www.design.iastate.edu/news/2020/05/miranda-moen-fulbright/
Please click on the photos above to read the captions for the photos.
Captions:
Søre Traaen house in Rollag, Numedal, Norway: "Gunder’s father, Guul, was born in Søre Traaen in 1803, so it is reasonable to believe he may have lived in this house. The house is referred to as the Mønåstue. Traaen is also spelled Tråen. Photograph 1929 from The Digital Archives of Norway website.
In my project, I will be working closely with the Norwegian Emigrant Museum (Norsk Utvandrermuseum) and the Oslo School of Architecture and Design , where I will analyze parallels between 19th-century working-class residences in Norway and Norwegian-American immigrant-built houses in my home state of Minnesota. As an architectural designer with my own design practice in Austin, Minnesota, I hope to use my findings to jump-start the research branch of my practice and to better inform place-based design for rural communities.
There is so much I could say right now about this, but trying to put it into clear, concise sentence seems like quite a task. What I can say is that I had no idea this would be possible - that I could get a proposal that includes two of my loves - genealogy and architectural research - funded for 10 months of work! I also want to point out that just because I have the privilege to receive a Fulbright, it does not mean that I am in any way smarter than anyone else or that my proposal was better than anyone else’s.
In my mind, it was truly the community of support from friends and family as well as my professors from the Architecture department and staff from the Center for Communication Excellence at Iowa State, in addition to the time I had available to obsessively write draft upon draft of my Statement of Grant Purpose and Personal Statement that led to my success. It is absolutely true that no one gains success on their own. <3
I will be writing about my project on my website blog, and will probably be creating an additional weblink to share photos, etc. so stay tuned! I leave for Norway in January 2021 so let the fun begin!
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