Joint PhD Program in Urban Systems

Aris Damadian Lindemans

Track
Urban Environment – Architectural History

E-Mail
Aris.lindemans@gmail.com

Work Position
Instructor, Architectural History IV

Date passed dissertation proposal defense
October 28, 2010

Biography

Aris Damadian Lindemans studied Urban Planning and Art History as an undergraduate at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.  She received a Master of Architecture degree from the NJIT School of Architecture and a Master in Civil Engineering degree from NJIT School of Engineering in 2006.  Before returning to NJIT to begin work on a Ph.D., Aris worked for  Gwathmey Siegel Architects and today continues to work as a residential architect in New Jersey.  She began her Ph.D. studies in 2007 and has been teaching architectural history at NJIT since 2008. Her dissertation proposal, ‘Amusement, Morals, and Religion: The Late Nineteenth Century Seaside Resort Towns of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove’ was approved in 2010 and is now a work in progress. Aris has presented her research at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) Conference in St. Louis, the Nineteenth Century Studies Association (NCSA) Conference in Albuquerque, and the Urban Studies Group Conference in England.  

Title of the Dissertation

Amusement, Morals, and Religion: The Late Nineteenth Century Seaside Resort Towns of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove

Dissertation Proposal Abstract

My research looks at two neighboring New Jersey seaside resort towns of the late nineteenth century: Asbury Park and Ocean Grove.  Although their histories were intertwined, Asbury Park developed as a typical tourist destination constructed of popular amusement infrastructure while Ocean Grove developed as a Methodist camp resort encircled by waves of canvas tents designed for more conservative religious tourists. The fortuitous anomaly of these neighboring secular and religious resorts offers an exciting potential to explore the collision of amusement, morals, and religion. I will show that the clashing interpretation of moral recreation in these towns and the dialogue between them inspired unprecedented urban forms, revealing an important intersection in nineteenth century American culture between moral recreation and physical space.  I will study the daily rituals and behaviors of vacationers as revealed by primary visual and textual sources (i.e. postcards and diaries), to tell the history of the creation/use/perception of vacation architecture and spaces.