Linda N. Groat

A professor of architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Linda Groat’s areas of research include design and methods, environmental meaning, empirical aesthetics, place theory, gender and minority issues in architectural education, and participatory processes in design. Her foundational work in these areas has had a significant impact on design studies research, and has received recognition in the academic and professional realms, as well as in national media such as U.S. News & World Report, The New York Times, NPR, and Women in Higher Education. In recognition of her work on gender in architectural education, Groat received U-M’s Sarah Goddard Power Award in 1998.

Groat teaches both core courses in Taubman College’s doctoral program, as well as elective courses in the Master of Architecture program, including Research for Design Practices, Alternative Practices, and Theorizing Place. During her many years of teaching doctoral students, Groat has served on approximately 60 dissertation committees (including at least 30 as chair or co-chair) primarily at the University of Michigan, but also at other institutions in the United States and abroad. Her special focus in doctoral education has been on research design and methods, and their integrative application across the breadth of architectural specialties. Her co-authored book, Architectural Research Methods (Wiley, 2013, 2nd edition), has been translated into Chinese and Persian.

Groat’s research has meaningful applications in both professional and academic contexts, and she has published widely in journals to reach these audiences, including Architecture, Progressive Architecture, Journal of Architectural Education, and Journal of Architectural and Planning Research. She has contributed numerous chapters to edited volumes and also has published an edited book, Giving Places Meaning (Academic Press, 1995), and currently is at work on a co-edited book, Games in Architecture in Architecture and Urban Planning: tools for design, teaching, and research (Routledge, forthcoming 2019).

In addition to professional experience in architecture, Groat holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from Yale University and a Master of Fine Arts in from the California Institute of the Arts, as well as a PhD and a Master of Science in environmental psychology from the University of Surrey in England.