The series, titled “Calibrations: The Space of Practice,” will address and promote the expanded space of architectural practices regarding critical issues of diversity and inclusivity.
Texas Tech University's College of Architecture (CoA) has launched its virtual fall 2020 lecture series, "Calibrations: The Space of Practice." The series will address and promote the expanded space of architectural practices regarding critical issues of diversity and inclusivity. The series will continue into the spring 2021 lecture series. It is accompanied by "Dialogues," a student-initiated series of public discussions on topics equally related to diversity and inclusivity.
Texas Tech students, faculty and staff will act as moderators for each lecture. Lectures will be synchronous and will partner both the Lubbock and El Paso campuses.
The series will focus on three practices:
• The way the nature of architectural practice is multiplying and evolving;
• Community-building through the inclusion and representation of minority voices;
and
• Creation of contexts via the reframing of architectural narratives to create inclusive
contexts for design.
"As the discipline of architecture seeks to become more socially and politically relevant, and as the profession grows and evolves into a number of distinct practices to accommodate this search, issues of diversity and inclusion become increasingly paramount," said Jim Williamson, dean of the College of Architecture. "The underrepresentation of Black and indigenous people, people of color and women has been a longstanding issue within architecture; recent events have only highlighted this. We as a college are obligated to address the underrepresented within our ranks and to do our part in addressing the need for an inclusive profession and the wealth of perspectives that this engenders. The CoA lecture series is one of several efforts the college is making in this regard."
The series includes the upcoming lectures, which will all begin at 4:30 p.m.:
• Wednesday (Sept. 23), "Life and Times" by Sekou Cooke, Sekou Cooke Studio and an
assistant professor at Syracuse University
• Oct. 5, "A Modern History of Kyoto: From Imperial City to World City to World Heritage
City" by Alice Y. Tseng, professor and department chair of history of art and architecture
at Boston University
• Oct. 21, "Cycling, the Paradox of Closure and the Architecture of Metabolism" by
Lydia Kallipoliti, assistant professor at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of
Science and Art
• Nov. 2, "5 Years" by Fernanda Canales, Fernanda Canales Architecture in Mexico City,
Mexico
• Nov. 18, "Program = People = State of Mind" by Kathryn Dean, Dean/Wolf Architects
and dean emeritus at Washington University
The first lecture in the series, "The Cape and the Cowl: Architectures of Vigilantism" by Germane Barnes, an assistant professor and the director of the Community, Housing and Identity Lab at the University of Miami, and Shawhin Roudbari, an assistant professor in environmental design at the University of Colorado-Boulder, was held Sept. 14 and is available to watch online.
Zoom links will be provided for each lecture prior to the event. If you're interested in attending virtually, please contact architecture@ttu.edu for more information.
A link to the recorded lecture also will be posted on the series' website the day after the event for those unable to attend.
Click here for more information on the upcoming lecturers and their presentations.
