In the wake of events in Ferguson, Staten Island, and around the country, three organizations at the Harvard Graduate School of Design will come together to host an interactive conversation about the role of urban design in social justice and equity. Sponsored by the Joint Center for Housing Studies, The Loeb Fellowship, and the African American Student Union, the event will feature a dialogue among leading design, architecture, and planning professionals, exploring the power of urban form and the responsibility of design professionals in the creation of more just communities.
The panel will be followed by a brainstorming session where attendees will collaborate on effective design responses to racial injustice and concentrated poverty. The event will be live webcast, and viewers will be able to join the conversation, and Tweet questions to the panel, with #informingjustice. Panelists include moderator Michael Hays (Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory & Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Harvard Graduate School of Design), Kimberly Dowdell (Fellow, Sheila C. Johnson Leadership Fellowship, Harvard Kennedy School),Theresa Hwang (Director of Community Design and Planning, Skid Row Housing Trust & Adjunct Assistant Professor, Woodbury University), and Seitu Jones (artist and former Loeb Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Design).
