Bonj Szczygiel

Bonj Szczygiel joined the faculty at Penn State in 1996. Since that time, she has contributed to both the undergraduate and B.L.A./M.L.A. and graduate programs through teaching, course development and program oversight. In the spring of 2020, she taught a graduate seminar introducing foundational thinking in landscape architecture discipline. She found a particular teaching ‘home’ in LARCH 60, a popular general education course that introduces students across the university to the world of design on the land. It was one of the first web-based courses offered by Penn State and, prior to that, had served student need for an Arts General Education credit. Meeting and working with students both within the Department of Landscape Architecture and across the University over the years continues to be a joy.

While Szczygiel has contributed to service at all levels — University, College, and Departmental — she was especially honored to be elected as Chair of the University Faculty Senate (2022-2023), the University’s only recognized faculty governance organization with direct oversight of Penn State curricular matters. Additionally, as the presiding officer of the Senate, she oversees the Senate’s 15 standing committees, special committees, and task forces that address a vast range of University issues as they impact the work and well-being of faculty and students. In this role, she has been a strong advocate for faculty and administrative shared governance.

Szczygiel’s research has focused on the historiography of built environments, having co-chaired a conference on gendered landscapes in 1999 and subsequent edited volumes. She has published on the sociological history of the landscape architecture profession; women’s urban development work of the 19th-century; and Frederick Law Olmsted’s concept of “salubrious landscapes.” Most recently she has begun to explore the cultural significance of memorials over time and the meta-messages they carry.

• B.S. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1989
• M.L.A. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1991

• University Fellow, Academic Leadership Program, Big Ten Academic Alliance, Leadership

• Szczygiel, Bonj. 2011. “City Beautiful Revisited”, in Women in Landscape Architecture: Essays on history and practice, eds. Louise Mozingo, Linda Jewell (Jefferson, NC, McFarland Publishers) pp. 95-112.
• Baird, T. C., B. Szczygiel. 2007 "Sociology of Professions: The Evolution of Landscape Architecture in the United States." Landscape Review, Lincoln University, New Zealand (Fall) 12:1, 3 – 25.
• Dowler, L., J. Carubia, B. Szczygiel, eds. 2005. Gender and Landscapes: Renegotiating Morality and Space. Routledge (International Studies of Women and Place series) and “Introduction” (1-16)
• Szczygiel, B.; J. Carubia, L. Dowler., eds. 2000, Gendered Landscapes: Interdisciplinary Exploration of Past Place and Space. (University Park, PA: Center for Studies in Landscape History).
• Szczygiel, B. “City Beautiful Revisited: An Analysis of 19^th-century Civic Improvement Efforts.” Journal of Urban History. (January 2003) 29:2, 107 – 132.
• Szczygiel, B., R. Hewitt. 2000. “Nineteenth-century Medical Landscapes: John H. Rauch, Frederick Law Olmsted and the Search for Salubrity.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Press. 74:4, 708-734. Reprinted in Bulletin of Anesthesia History, (April 2001) 19:2.
• Szczygiel, B., Daniel J. Nadenicek, 1997. “Beaux Arts From Above?: City Beautiful and the Legacy of Women’s Improvement Organizations,” in Building Toward Diversity: Selected CELA Annual Conference Papers.