Dr. Niall Atkinson

Biography

Niall Atkinson’s teaching and scholarship focus on public space, urban history, soundscapes, geography, travel, architecture, urbanism, and late Medieval Renaissance Italy. His research is concerned with the relationship between sound, space, and architecture and the role of construction in pre-modern urban societies. His current projects explore digital visualizations of early modern urban soundscapes using GIS technology and investigate visual sonic cultures of the Indian Ocean. Atkinson is collaborating on a new book project with Susanna Caviglia (Duke University) tentatively entitled "Wandering Rome: French Travelers and the Image of the Early Modern City," which investigates the aesthetics and mechanics of urban mobility that constituted the experience and representation of Rome for early modern French travelers. He was the Geddes Visiting Fellow at the School of Architecture at the University of Edinburgh in 2019 and received the President’s Citation for his creative curatorial work representing Chicago at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. He was awarded the Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring at the University of Chicago in 2018. In 2017-18, he was appointed a fellow at the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Villa Tatti, and received research grants from the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago. Atkinson has held fellowships from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institut). His publications include the monograph entitled "Noisy Renaissance: Sound, Architecture, and Florentine Urban Life," published by Pennsylvania State University Press in 2016.

Research Interests

Experience