Willa Granger is a built environment historian of modern and contemporary U.S. cultural landscapes. Her work uses ordinary architecture to tell larger social stories, often seeking the voices of those beyond the ken of traditional building production. Specifically, Willa's research advocates for a broadened interest in elderhood, aging, and disability within architectural history and design praxis. Her dissertation and first book project, Constructing Old Age: Race, Ethnicity, Religion and the Architecture of Homes for the Aged, 1870-1965, unearths the architectural and social history of the contemporary nursing home. This research relies upon the built environment to consider the ethics of aging, ageism, and age segregation: what does American society owe its oldest citizens, and to whom does this responsibility fall in material and spatial practice? Willa's research has been featured in Buildings & Landscapes, the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Urban Omnibus, Cite, and Platform. Her work has been supported by the Graham Foundation, the American Association of University Women, the Vernacular Architecture Forum, and the Society of Architectural Historians. She is presently a Fellow-in-Residence at Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.

Speaker for HMUI Urban Conversations Event: Constructing Old Age: Race, Ethnicity, Religion, and the Architecture of Homes for the Aged.