- Ph.D., Arts and Sciences with a Specialization in Architecture Education, Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, December 10, 2001- May 31, 2009
- MFA, Interior Design, Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, GA, July 1993
- BA, Architectural Science, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL, July 1991
Carla Jackson Bell, Ph.D., is currently the Director, Multicultural Affairs in the CADC at Auburn University. From fall 1993 through spring 2006, Dr. Bell was a tenured associate professor in the Department of Architecture at Tuskegee University. She is recognized as the first woman architecture faculty to receive tenure in the Department of Architecture and one of only eight tenured African American women architecture faculty in the United States.
Dr. Bell also has the honor of being the only African-American to be awarded the specialized doctoral degree in Architecture Education. Throughout her 16 years of professional experience in administration and teaching, Dr. Bell has received over $350,000.00 from research grants and small donations to support diverse initiatives for new learning environments which concentrate on under-represented students' cultural experiences in architecture, design and construction programs at Tuskegee and Auburn Universities. Her overall responsibility at Auburn is the recruit, retain, and advance minority faculty, staff, and students and seek funding for diverse programs in the college.
Personal Statement:
For the past 16 years, my focus has been on underrepresented students in architecture, design and construction programs. My teaching experience and research in architecture education have provided enough experience to address the issues surrounding the success of these students and additional practice to engage in empirical research to inform my efforts. My research has revealed that recruiting, retaining, mentoring, and supporting a less insular educational environment will encourage students to share the experiences, understandings, and aesthetics of their culture.
Because I have chosen a path of discovery, the end results were not as first anticipated. This process of discovery has taught me more than I originally set out to find. As a result, I was motivated to explore architecture curricula content in addition to the changes in teaching approaches and teaching/learning environments. It is my desire to contribute to bringing about a change via transforming traditional architecture curricula content, methods of implementing curriculum, and academic environments by exploring, describing, recording, and communicating views and practices for architecture, construction and design students.
Current and Past Organizations:
Publications and Lectures:
Invisible Voices: Celebrating Minorities in Architecture, Design & Construction, Lecture and Panel Discussion, Multicultural Center, Forthcoming April 14, 2010
The Educational Debate……..on the “Self-Taught” Black Architect. Journal of History and Culture. (Vol. 1, Number 2). Publication date: summer 2009.
Affirmations, Perceptions, and Attitudes of Licensed African-American Architects and Educators in the United States: Architecture Curricula Content and Teaching Approaches in Teaching/Learning Environments. ProQuest, (Publication No. [3374431].)
News Article: “UI Lecturer hopes to add diversity to architecture.” The News-Gazette, Urbana-Champaign, IL, Nov. 4, 2004
Space Unveiled: Techne as a Means of Manifesting Invisible Cultures In the Beginning Design Studio. Not White: Diversity in Beginning Design Education, Proceedings of the 20th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student (with Armstrong, D., Invited Lecture), April 2004