Dr. Sonja Hildebrand

Biography

Sonja Hildebrand is an art historian who studied at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and Freie Universität Berlin. She received her PhD from Technische Universität München in 1997 for her prize-winning dissertation on Egon Eiermann. In 2008, she habilitated in art history. Throughout her academic career, she has conducted research projects and taught at institutions such as Technische Universität München, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, ETH Zürich, and Universität Zürich. In 2010, she served as a substitute professor at ETH Zürich, taking over the former chair held by Werner Oechslin. She was appointed Professor of the History of Modern and Contemporary Architecture at Università della Svizzera italiana in 2011 and has been involved in various administrative roles, including as Pro-Rector for Research in the Humanities. Her research focuses on the history of architectural culture and theory during the 19th and 20th centuries, with particular expertise in the theoretical and practical works of Gottfried Semper, as well as German-Swiss modern and contemporary architecture. Hildebrand has been responsible for numerous research projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and other research agencies. She currently leads a project examining Semper's main theoretical work "Der Stil" in collaboration with Philip Ursprung from ETH Zürich.

Research Interests