Aidan Flynn is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Architecture at MIT. He holds a B.A. in art history and Renaissance Studies from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Science in Architecture Studies from the History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art at MIT. Aidan considers the relationships between postmodern queer theory and early modern studies as a simultaneously generative and anachronistic space, carefully examining and releasing the silences from the premodern archive. Prior to teaching at MIT, Aidan was Corbet Fellow at the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, and Research Assistant to the Digitally Encoded Census and Information Mapping Archive.
Sessions in which Aidan Flynn participates
Saturday 28 May, 2022
What role has the department store played in shaping Canadian identity, and how has its built environment been reappropriated by queer folk to queer ends? From its overtly colonial origins of 1670 to its merger with American corporations in 2006, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) has always been a space for buying and selling goods, but what about other exchanges of goods that happen behind the thin walls of bathrooms in HBC department stores? To date, scholarship has focused primarily on the...
Sessions in which Aidan Flynn attends
Saturday 28 May, 2022
Queerness and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer histories are a part of architectural and historical production. Yet, these perspectives do not enjoy the same prominence as heterocentric narratives. This session aims to interrogate all aspects of gender and sexual identity related to the Canadian built environment. It seeks to scrutinize the successes and failures of architecture, architectural history, and heritage in accommodatin...
Ramps and curb cuts often first come to mind when one thinks about how the built environment is designed for people with disabilities. Accessible designs, however, need to account for individuals that may not be restricted in terms of mobility but live with other impairments such as blindness or neurological and cognitive conditions. Ideally, an architectural design will allow all users to feel as though they are included and not judged. This s...
When talking about the built environment that perpetuates a heterocentric narrative, it is not possible to avoid the segregation of the sexes in public washrooms, one for the male sex and the other for the female sex. This has direct repercussions on the inclusion of queer people, on their comfort and even on their security. However, the laws imposing this separation in Canada were not enacted until the end of the 19th century, not as an instrument of segregation but rather a symbol of the...