Design for Spatial Justice Podcast Series
The podcast series highlights the School of Architecture and Environment (SAE)’s initiative on Design for Spatial Justice. The fellowship, started by started by School of Architecture & Environment leadership, brings together researchers, designers, and activists working at the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, indigeneity, sexuality, and economic inequality. The fellowship also questions the Euro-Centric North American pedagogy that professional schools of design currently embody, which has, as a result, disproportionately excluded cultural perspectives outside of western, colonial traditions.
The term ‘spatial justice’ originates with the scholarship of urbanist Edward W. Soja (Seeking Spatial Justice, 2010) and anthropologist and geographer David Harvey (Social Justice in the City, 1973). In the context of their work, spatial justice is viewed through a geographical lens, looking at the consequences of the organization of space on social justice (e.g., political boundaries, privatization of public lands, urban walkability, and accessibility).
The podcast series brings you insights into the work of Visiting Faculty Fellows in Design for Spatial Justice—designers, researchers, and activists from around the world working on spatial justice issues at the intersection of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and economic inequality.
Hosted by Grace Aaraj, Design for Spatial Justice Fellow, SAE, University of Oregon
Recorded and Edited by Mary Anne Funk, Multimedia Department, Portland Community College
Music by DJ Amadeusz from Chicoco Radio all the way from the waterfronts of Portharcourt, Nigeria
Remote Podcast recording studio provided by Mary Anne Funk
Episode 01, Season 02: Craig Wilkins
Design Activism: The Desire and the Necessity
Read the Episode 01 Transcript
In this episode of the Design for Spatial Justice podcast series, Craig Wilkins discusses activism in design.
Craig once wrote an essay entitled “Dear Architecture” to the practice and profession about doing less than it could do. For you listeners, this episode is a journey of joy, freedom, questioning, and observation through the eyes of Craig’s practice and teaching career. It is an invitation to bring the desire and necessity of your whole self to any project you are working on.
This episode was recorded on March 23, 2021. It’s the first episode of Season 2 of the Design for Spatial Justice podcast at the School of Architecture & Environment at the University of Oregon.
We hope you enjoy it!
Episode 02, Season 02: Nina Maritz
Practicing Locally: The Holistic Approach to Architectural Design
Read the Episode 02 Transcript
In this Design for Spatial Justice podcast episode, Nina Maritz presents the interconnected justices she addresses in her Namibia-based practice.
Through unglamorous yet much-needed justice in the environment and the buildings, Nina helps us understand how to fulfill an architecture that contains everything it can.
It is an introverted journey for an extroverted goal, a journey of self-exploration as an African architect, a fellow of spatial justice, and a citizen of this world. With stories about growing up, traveling, and learning architecture, Nina leaves you with inspirations, reflections, and—we hope—plans.
This episode was recorded on June 12, 2021. It’s the second episode of Season 2 of the Design for Spatial Justice podcast at the School of Architecture & Environment at the University of Oregon.
We hope you enjoy it!
Episode 03, Season 02: Cory Parker
Landscapes: Designing For and With People
Episode Summary for Website and Social Media:
Read the Episode 03 Transcript
In this episode of the Design for Spatial Justice podcast series, Cory Parker takes us on his journey of exploration from practicing to teaching and researching landscape architecture to serve spatial justice.
From afternoons with chai teas, listening to jazz, and writing a book, this episode is an excursion through the landscape of Cory’s profession, a practitioner for many years and currently a California-based academic researching homelessness and other emerging societal issues.
This episode was recorded on March 19, 2021. It’s the third episode of Season 2 of the Design for Spatial Justice podcast at the School of Architecture & Environment at the University of Oregon.
We hope you enjoy it!
Episode 04, Season 02: Logman Arja
Transforming Local Communities: Instrumentalizing Architecture and Technology
Read the Episode 04 Transcript
In this Design for Spatial Justice podcast episode, Logman Arja discusses ruralism in his teaching.
From Darfur to the U.S. west coast, you’ll hear a common thread for teaching through a journey lived and narrated by a young scholar. Logman’s research and teaching focus on transforming local communities by instrumentalizing architecture and technology through what he calls “ruralism.”
Whether through the recipes of his native Sudan or the questioning of how communities recover, we are sure it is an episode that will take you to places experiencing different situations.
This episode was recorded on March 23, 2021. It’s the fourth episode of Season 2 of the Design for Spatial Justice podcast at the School of Architecture & Environment at the University of Oregon.
We hope you enjoy it!
Episode 05, Season 02: Pamela Kislak and Chandra Robinson
From Inspired to Inspiring: Behind-the Scenes of the DFSJ Sponsors
Read the Episode 05 Transcript
In this episode of the Design for Spatial Justice podcast series, Chandra Robinson and Pamela Kislak of Lever Architecture discuss practice as we knew it and its future post-COVID.
With concerns for spatial and social justice on the rise, how do individuals and companies contribute to the solution?
This episode with two guests is a conversation among friends discussing the role of architecture and architects and how 2020 changed, limited, or inspired the way we communicate and design. Lever Architecture is one of the Design for Spatial Justice Initiative sponsors.
This episode was recorded on June 9, 2021. It’s the fifth episode of Season 2 of the Design for Spatial Justice podcast at the School of Architecture & Environment at the University of Oregon.
We hope you enjoy it!