I study contentious political engagement by design professionals. Through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and analyzing texts, I investigate ways activists shape and organize power towards justice causes. While the focus of my work is on counter-hegemonic movements by professionals, my research has led me to study the globalization of architecture’s institutions and community-engaged design. And though my focus began with architects, these inquiries have led me to consider the work of planners and civil and environmental engineers, as related professions whose work, institutions, and activism often overlap with designers’. My work contributes to histories and theories of activism in the spatial professions and relies on ethnographic methods.
keywords
design professions, spatial professions, architecture, activism, dissent, contentious politics, institutional culture, history of design, social movement and organization theory, Iran
ARCH 4010 - Architectural Appreciation and Design
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018
Introduces basic processes and principles of architectural design. Provides a basis for understanding and evaluating architecture.
ARCH 4100 - Studio 3: Capstone in Architecture
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2021
The capstone of the studio sequence, this course investigates building technology, structural systems, user experience, and environmental sustainability. Studio options may include a client-based community engaged project, real world applications, and/or result in a physical product. Outcomes include well developed structures designed with a high level of craft, resulting in sophisticated and exhibit-worthy presentations.
ENVD 1004 - Introduction to Environmental Design Theory
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023
Introduces methods, principles and philosophies that guide environmental design. Explores ways of thinking about, and accomplishing, the act of design. Students contemplate the processes and motivations behind design decisions including discussions of environmental sustainability and social responsibility.
ENVD 1010 - Studio 1: Introduction to Environmental Products of Design
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2020
The first of four introductory studios introduces students to concepts and techniques related to the design of products at a human scale. In an immersive project-based studio environment students develop the foundation of design communication and thinking through a series of hands-on projects with physical outcomes.
ENVD 1020 - Studio 1: Introduction to Architecture
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2021
The second of four introductory studios introduces students to strategies and techniques of architectural design and communication in a hands-on studio environment. Students design a small-scale architectural project that responds to environmental, contextual and programmatic needs while developing the necessary skills for iterative design processes.
ENVD 1040 - Studio 1: Introduction to Planning and Urban Design
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020
The fourth of four introductory studios in which students learn concepts and strategies related to urban planning and design. Students collaboratively develop a design solution to a small-scale problem within an urban fabric using basic skills of analysis and design iteration.
ENVD 1052 - Design and Communication 1
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018
Using both lectures and drawing exercises, this class extends understandings of the representational conventions used by the design professions through its introduction to the possibilities offered by emerging digital techniques for the depiction of designed artifacts and environments, allowing students to extend and enhance their understandings of advanced practices for design visualization, representation and communication. Recommended corequisites: ENVD 1004 and ENVD 2001.
ENVD 1102 - Design and Communication 2
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018
Using both lectures and drawing exercises, this class extends understandings of the representational conventions used by the design professions through its introduction to the possibilities offered by traditional techniques for the advanced practices for design visualization, representation, and communication. Recommended corequisites: ENVD 1104 and ENVD 2003.
ENVD 1120 - Studio 2: Fundamentals of Architecture
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
Focusing on the languages of design, as well as on traditional and digital methods of visualizing architectural ideas and forms, this course builds on the skills learned in Studio 1 and begins incorporating the dynamic forces that shape our buildings.
ENVD 4361 - Special Topics: Social Factors in Design
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
Addresses variable topics in the relationship of human experience and behavior to the built environment, e.g., social research methods in environmental design.
ENVD 4929 - Research Assistant
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022
By special arrangement with instructor. May be repeated up to 99 total credit hours. Recommended prerequisite: 3.00 GPA.
ENVD 4979 - Honors Thesis
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2022
Working with an advisor, students prepare, complete, and defend an honors thesis project, either written or creative.
PLAN 3102 - Strategies and Techniques for Sustainable Planning and Design
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2023
Explores analytical strategies and techniques in applied research and professional skills needed in sustainable planning and design. Includes quantitative and qualitative methods used by planners and designers to make informed decisions.
