Charlette Caldwell

• Priority Area: Race, Racism, and Inequality
• Disciplines: Art History/architectural history, Black studies, cultural heritage/historic preservation studies
• Mentor: Dr. Carla Yanni
• Mentor's Disciplines: 19th and 20th century Arts of the Americas, Social History of Architecture from 1750 to the present in the United States and Great Britain
• School: School of Arts and Sciences
• Department: Art History

Charlette's area of specialization is the cultural and social history of architecture in the 19th and 20th century United States, with particular interest in the preservation of heritage places associated with marginalized people and their histories.

Charlette's current manuscript, “Crucible of a Freedom Church: Building Culture of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, 1790s – 1920s,” examines how cultural, economic, and political conditions affected the building culture of the AME Church in the United States. Focusing primarily on print culture produced by AME clergymen and members of the Black elite, she looks to unearth how Black Church building embodied issues of class, identity, and respectability amongst the AMEs. In this work, she situates AME building culture within the social and cultural history of Black identity in the United States, emphasizing racialized minorities as agents reacting to their own material conditions. This work explores Protestant architectural trends in several key AME Church building projects and AME print culture centered on expanding the church, while also challenging racist assumptions about Black people through building and design.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are inherent to Charlette's teaching philosophy, which heavily influences her research framework. As such, her experiences as a Black female student have shaped her pedagogical methods tremendously: how to meet students at their levels and treat them as collaborators and experts in their learning processes/careers without marginalizing them. Charlette also believes in exposing students to community outreach in the form of local advocacy work based on her research interests.

Charlette believes her commitment to DEI in research and teaching contributes to Rutgers’ charge in cultivating community. She believes that academia is a people profession: nurturing the strengths of fellow professionals and scholars, but also treating non-academics with the same prestige.