Christopher Mead, professor of architecture and art history, has been named a Regents’ Professor, an honor the university bestows upon a faculty member. Mead has taught at UNM since 1980, where he holds tenure as well as a joint appointment in the School of Architecture and Planning and in the College of Fine Arts.
Photo: Christopher Mead
From 2004 to 2009, he served as dean of the College of Fine Arts. He received his bachelor’s of art summa cum laude from the University of California at Riverside, and both his master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mead has served as administrator and academic during his tenure at UNM. “I never thought of administration as what I do, but as what I do as a service obligation to the university,” he said. As dean or as professor, he remains committed to research and teaching, recognizing them as a core value in higher education.
“Being an active, engaged scholar enhances the quality of one’s teaching. To be named a Regents’ Professor is an important recognition of my scholarship,” he said.
Mead will use the funding attached to his appointment as a Regents’ Professor to support the research and publication of both his forthcoming book on Victor Baltard and his study-in-progress on Japanese modern architecture, called Hypospace.
Hypospace takes Mead from his comfort zone of European and North American architecture. “For me, going to Japan was going in a new direction, to a new country. It makes me stretch my mental muscles – learn a new culture, history and architecture,” he said. Both Japan and New Mexico share enduring, ancient traditions while being firmly rooted in the modern age, he said.
“As a historian with an academic appointment in a professional school, I believe it important to publish books on contemporary architecture, even as I build on my national reputation by extending my expertise outside my recognized strengths in Europe and North America to include Asia,” Mead said.
Mead, past president of the Society of Architectural Historians, has written and lectured widely on European and American architecture and urbanism. He awaits publication of his new book on French architecture by Penn State Press and a UNM Press title he wrote on Antoine Predock.
Mead was named a 2004-2006 Presidential Teaching Fellow. He received the 1992 Faculty Achievement Award from the Burlington Foundation, was initiated in 2001 as an Honorary Member of Phi Eta Sigma and was named in 2005 a Distinguished Member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.
Mead served as associate chair and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, and as interim dean and dean of the College of Fine Arts. His community service includes board appointments to the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee, the Harwood Foundation, the Albuquerque Arts Alliance, the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, 516 Arts and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.
In 2009, he received the Arts Alliance President’s Award for leadership in educating the community on the economic importance of the arts to Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. He served nationally as a 10 year board member and officer of the Society of Architectural Historians, including service as president in 2000-02.
In 1984, the UNM Board of Regents initiated a program to enhance recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty by recognizing and designating them as a “Regents' Professor or Regents' Lecturer.” The three-year appointment includes a monetary award which can be used for salary supplement, professional development or toward research. Professorships carry $8,300 each of the three years and the Lectureships $2,900 each of the three years.
Recipients are selected at the college-level from nominations submitted by the departments within each college or school and they carry the title for the rest of their academic career.
Raqui Martinez, director, Faculty Affairs and Services, said, “There have been 219 Regents Professors and Lecturers including the current recipients. Along with Chris Mead there are seven other new recipients.”
They are: Linda Hall, History; Zachary Sharp, Earth & Planetary Sciences; Margaret Werner-Washburne, Biology, Abhaya Datye, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering; Sanjay Krishna, Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Carol Suzuki and Eric Gerding, Law.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu