Bernardo Menezes

Can historical narratives challenge our perception of the built environment?

John Ruskin famously said, “To be taught to see is to gain word and thought at once.” But what has history  to see? I aim to expand the limited research on garden and landscape history as a cultural discipline by examining how writings about landscapes inform our ways of seeing and shaping them today.

Only recently has garden and landscape history been established as a serious field of study, continuously struggling to find its right place within Western academia. Though some authors see it as a healthy subject whose studies are established within many academic disciplines, others argue that its contours are unclear, with no logical home in universities. The field’s rapid growth over the last half-century has timidly prompted research into its own history. However, published works on garden and landscape historiography are still scarce. In broad strokes, those works highlight the need for more in-depth and interdisciplinary studies based on contextual approaches. They suggest reviewing existing narratives by considering the cultural setting that produced them. They call for expanding historiographical studies in order to develop a robust theoretical framework for gardens and landscapes studies. These conclusions endorse my aim to address this under-researched topic in relation to other epistemologies. By examining selected authors in detail, critically assessing their work, and placing it in a broader intellectual context, my research aims to expand knowledge on the field’s historiography. I plan to question their methodological approaches and clarify how historical accounts have influenced our sensory experience of the world, framing our ways of seeing. Moreover, confronting these narratives with theorists from different conceptual grounds will allow for new arguments to emerge.

Prior to studying for a Ph.D., I worked as a designer and as an independent scholar at the University of Porto, developing research and publishing in my expertise. I am especially proud to have assisted in the preliminary studies that led to the inscription of the sanctuary Bom Jesus do Monte (Braga, Portugal) as a cultural landscape in the World Heritage List (UNESCO). Seeking to contribute to education in these fields, I taught at university for three years on modules such as “History of Landscape Architecture,” “Landscape Policies,” and “History of Modern and Contemporary Architecture,” reaffirming my ambition for a career in academia. I graduated from the University of Porto with Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Landscape Architecture, and a BA in History of Art. In addition, I earned an MA in Garden and Landscape History from the University of London. My research is currently funded by a Fulbright Grant for Graduate Studies, to which a Ph.D. Studentship offered by the Portuguese Government and complementary financial support from UVA will follow.