Assistant Professor
she, her
Office Information:
70B Tappan Hall
phone: 734.615.4361
Education/Degree:
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015M.Des.S. with Distinction, Harvard University, 2001
M.Arch. Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999
Dipl. Arq. Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil, 1996
Highlighted Work and Publications
Modernity for the Masses: Antonio Bonet's Dreams for Buenos Aires
Ana María León
A provocative examination of how the discourse and practice of modern architecture was transformed by its encounter with large populations and the volatile politics of twentieth-century Argentina.
The Settler Colonial Present
Andrew Herscher and Ana María León at e-flux architecture
Architecture, with its deep implications in property and capital derived from settler colonial processes, condenses the tensions, contradictions, disavowals, and betrayals of settler colonialism. And yet, discourse on settler colonialism has been largely absent from the architectural discipline. This absence is productive in settler colonial contexts—it allows the discipline to most effectively serve the interests of capital and its emissaries. Indeed, in its hegemonic professional and pedagogic forms, architecture was and remains a product, instrument, and memorial of settler colonialism. Attempts...
See MoreToward an Anti-Racist Contemporary Art History
Society of Contemporary Art Historians
This live, online event brings together a dynamic panel of contemporary art and architectural historians who will discuss how their scholarship and teaching have moved our field toward more just, inclusive, anti-racist futures. The conversation will address a range of topics from overarching disciplinary concerns to granular know-how as the panelists approach the following questions: What did the contemporary cultural historical canon look like when you first entered the field, and how has your work as a scholar and teacher responded to, and...
See More"What is an Antiracist Architectural History?" Roundtable
Irene Cheng, Charles L. Davis II, Jia Yi Gu, Ana María León, and Mabel O. Wilson
July 24, 2020
The recent Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd have brought renewed attention to the need for pedagogies that incorporate the histories of racism and antiracism, both in the context of academia at large and in architecture programs specifically. Architectural history has long been a field where Eurocentric and white supremacist assumptions have remained unquestioned. These assumptions are replicated and disseminated, year after year, through institutions such as the survey course. As architectural historians and teachers, several of us...
See MoreAt the Border of Decolonization
Andrew Herscher and Ana María León
e-flux.com, 2020
Palace of the People
Gina Balibrera
LSA Magazine, Spring 2020
Settler Colonial City Project
Andrew Herscher and Ana María León at the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial
September 19, 2019 - January 5, 2020