Welcome to HIG: The Historic Interiors Affiliate Group.
Since our first round table at the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) meeting in Providence in 2019, HIG has been in formation as a scholarly network. Our mission is to gather teachers, researchers, curators, archivists, librarians, publishers, and practitioners with common interests in research and pedagogy on the history of the interior, broadly defined. Encompassing interior design, furnishings, decorative arts, technology, material culture, anthropology, gender studies and more, the history of the interior is an interdisciplinary endeavor that is still very much under construction. Building on pioneering work done in Great Britain and in the United States at Pratt, Bard, and Parsons, HIG is meant to foster and promote work that represents the cutting edge in this field, including pedagogy, methods and sources, exhibition and display of interior environments, stage and set design, immersive environments, adaptive reuse of interiors, and the history of the interior design profession. We are particularly interested in exploring ways to decolonize the study of historic interiors as well as issues raised by our current pandemic crisis.
We have found a structured organizational home within the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH). In March of 2020, this learned society took the important step of formalizing affiliate groups within the organization to support focused study in areas of interest to its members, and to attract new affiliate members in areas related to its founding focus, architectural history. As an affiliate group, HIG will have access to a number of resources, including this Word Press website, a group site on SAH Commons, and the opportunity to host roundtables and virtual meetings hosted by the SAH. A nominal fee of $25 will provide HIG members with access to these resources as well as online resources such as Archipedia, SAHARA open collections, and discounted access to JSTOR and Humanities E. Books.
As we roll out the group we are planning the content of the website and several group activities, including a nationally and internationally publicized virtual meeting on October 21st through the webinar series SAH Connects. Our goals include a syllabus exchange, member profiles, additions of interiors imagery to the online SAHARA database and an ongoing bibliographic compilation including dissertations. Please join us is making HIG an important, virtual place to share and publicize our work.