Charlette Caldwell

Charlette M. Caldwell is a doctoral candidate and a Provost Diversity Fellow studying the history and theory of architecture at Columbia University. Her research focuses broadly on nineteenth-century American architecture through a vernacular architectural perspective. Her dissertation examines how cultural, economic, and political processes influenced the building culture and architecture of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church before its official founding in 1816 to the 1930s. This study looks to unearth how Black church building reflected issues of class and identity amongst AME leadership and laypeople, demonstrating how the AME culture of building formed within a crucible marred by the vestiges of slavery and violence in the United States.

Charlette received a bachelor’s in architecture from Syracuse University and a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Charlette’s work has been supported by the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites in the Weitzman School, where she worked as a Research Fellow; the Society of Architectural Historians, where she serves on the Graduate Student Advisory Committee; the Historic American Building Survey; the Athenaeum of Philadelphia; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; and the Library Company of Philadelphia. Charlette was also a Sally-Kress Tompkins Fellow in the summer of 2021.

During her time as CPCRS Research Fellow, Caldwell researched the historical parameters and limitations around preserving civil rights sites and explored the possibilities for expanding traditional historic preservation to heritage preservation. Read her paper here.