Diversity at the GSD

“Since its founding, the Graduate School of Design has been a crossroads of learning and intellectual debate. Today, the school is committed to building on that legacy of cultural diversity, firm in the conviction that a multiplicity of voices and viewpoints among students, staff, and faculty is essential to our mission of advancing the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning and design.”
Dean Mohsen Mostafavi

News

In the fall of 2008, Mohsen Mostafavi began his first full year as Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design. One of the first things he did was establish the Dean’s Diversity Initiative. Its goal is to increase the number of underrepresented minorities within the GSD faculty, staff, and student body. Concerned about the low numbers of African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans at the GSD and in the design professions, the Dean has established a committee of faculty, students, staff, and alumni to look at the issue and make recommendations.

Members:
Lauren Baccus, Director of Human Resources
Jonathan Evans, Student, MArch I program
Toni Griffin, Adjunct Assoc. Professor of Urban Planning
Gail Gustafson, Co-Director of Admissions
Jonathan Levi, Adjunct Professor of Architecture - (Co-Chair)
Howard Mack , Student, MArch II program
Erika Naginski, Associate Professor of Architecture
Geri Nederhoff, Co-Director of Admissions
Carlos Reyes, Student Services Coordinator
Pat Roberts, Executive Dean
Laura Snowdon, Dean of Students - (Co-Chair)
Jim Stockard, Lecturer in Housing Studies, Director of the Loeb Fellowship Program

Advisors:
Derek Ham, Assistant Professor at Florida A&M University; Alumnus, MArch II, 2003; GSD Alumni Council
Steve Lewis, President of NOMA; Principal, Parsons Corp.; GSD Loeb Fellow 2006-07
Liz Ogbu, Public Architecture; Alumna, MArch I, 2004
Michaele Pride, Assoc. Professor, UC School of Arch and Interior Design, MAUD 2001, GSD Alumni Council Chair

Programs

The GSD’s focus has been to expand enrollments of underrepresented minority students and also develop programs to expose middle and high school students to the design fields in an effort to increase the number of minority students applying to design schools and then practicing in the field or teaching in academia.

Programs to Promote Diversity in Design:

Project Link
July 2009

PROJECT LINK was created, planned and initiated by graduate students in the fields of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. It is a student run and university funded opportunity to reach out to Boston communities to introduce and provide design opportunities for underprivileged and talented high school students.

PROJECT LINK is an intensive four week program that seeks to immerse rising high school sophomores, juniors and seniors into the world of design. Students will be exposed to drawing, modeling and representation techniques associated with architectural design as well as the design perspectives of landscape architecture, urban planning, graphics, and industrial and fine arts design. PROJECT LINK strives to foster design skills and put students on track for exploring these ideas in college. By exposing students to the possibilities of design, PROJECT LINK hopes to instill a passion for design in local communities.

Last summer, eleven participants from a range of Boston-area high schools participated. The GSD instructors had spent months planning the syllabus, field trips and website and, though we were confident it would be a positive experience, we had no idea how enthusiastically the students would dive into the world of design. While Project Link was developed as a way to tackle the lack of underrepresented minorities in architecture, once assembled, the student body represented a rich cross-section of Boston not only racially, but through a socioeconomic diversity reflective of local communities as a whole.

Career Discovery Program

Underrepresented minority students are encouraged to apply to our intensive, six-week, summer Career Discovery Program. By immersing themselves in our studio-based program, they are exposed to architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning and design. They also become familiar with the GSD and the Harvard University campus. Need-based financial aid is available.

Design Initiative for Youth (DIY)

In the fall of 2006, GSD students taught a design apprenticeship for Citizen Schools' 8th Grade Academy and since then have been working with a group of 10-12 8th grade students every semester to teach them basic concepts about design. At the end of each semester, students showcase their new knowledge in a final project called "WOW." The hope is to get the students excited about potential futures in design, possibly leading to their participation in Career Discovery once they're in high school or even pursuing a design education in college.

Citizen Schools is an organization that works with middle-school students to 'bridge' the gap between elementary school and high school, using tutoring, writing workshops, and weekly apprenticeships to help students prepare for a college-track high school experience. The apprenticeships are 11 weeks long, taught by volunteer teachers in a variety of subjects so that students can sign up for the one that most interests them.

Conferences and Symposia

FuturePresent Symposium
April 3, 2008

Photos by Anita Han

A symposium and initiative to increase diversity in the design professions.

Its mission:
The FuturePresent symposium and initiative mission was to amplify discussion of the interrelationship between marginalized cultural environments, (schools of) architecture, and renewed leadership of minority architects. FuturePresent sought to energize a network of students, professionals and academics to think critically across the design disciplines and to proactively and in collaboration work to increase diversity within landscape/architecture, urban planning and design.
Our Communities » Too often design discourse foregrounds a generic “urban” over the more political “community” or “neighborhood,” and ignores the significance of culturally-loaded territories linked to terminology such as “Our.” Can we make design more relevant to marginalized communities through advocacy and design?
FuturePresent » What can today’s new generation of young designers do now to increase underrepresented minority presence in academia and practice?

Systems for Inclusion 8
Conference April 4-6, 2008

The GSD, in association with Design Corps, hosted the eighth offering of the annual Structures for Inclusion (SFI) conference series. Entitled “Systems for Inclusion,” SFI8 explores the interface of design and systemic social action: Can design(ers) challenge globally networked systems of exclusivity and inequality? What are the relationships between design and political power, economic and ecological sustainability, justice and community?

Targeted at students and young professionals who want to move beyond a purely aesthetic discussion--who see landscape/architecture and urban planning/design as an integrative and interconnected project--the conference's goal was to jumpstart a new conversation about the social dimensions of the natural and built environments.

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, internationally acclaimed for his humanitarian efforts and his innovative use of building materials, was the keynote speaker. First in the world to construct a building out of recycled paper, Ban built the “Community Dome,” a meeting place for victims of the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan. His “Paper Log Houses” provided temporary shelter for the earthquake victims. Through his material research into the structural capacity of organic materials, such as paper tubes, bamboo and wood, Ban has created a new vocabulary for contemporary architecture based in environmental and social concerns.

Progress in Process Series: Women in Design (WiD)
Symposium March 13, 14, 20, April 14

Jayne Kang, Emily Pearl, Toshiko Mori, Katy Barkan	Panel 1	Panel 1	Panel 2 - Carol Gilligan
Panel 3	Panel 3	Panel 4	Panel 4

Photos by Anita Han

Currently, only 13.3 percent of the members of the American Institute of Architects are women, a mere 1.2 percent increase from 1975, while approximately half of architecture students are female. The Progress in Process Series, organized by the GSD student group Women in Design, presented three panel discussions that addressed this perpetual disparity, which is generated in part by a lack of recognition of previous generations of female designers. By spotlighting the recent work of women in design fields, the symposium aimed to embolden young designers to pursue long-term careers in the design fields and to progress toward a more diverse professional population. Sessions focused on how international practice is shaping spaces that effect change for women worldwide and on the issues of gender roles and different types of professional partnerships within design practice.

Student Organizations

Architecture for Humanity Boston GSD
AfHBGSD is a subset of Architecture for Humanity Boston. AfHB is dedicated to innovations in architectural and design solutions to humanitarian crises and to provide design services to communities in need. AfHB works not only within the Boston area, but according to our membership's interest, in as many places from New Orleans to Pakistan.

Asia GSD
Founded in 1994, AsiaGSD is a student organization at the Harvard Design School for students interested in the design issues of the Asia Pacific region. Its mission is to promote awareness of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, and related disciplines in visual and design arts within an Asian context and its implications in a broad regional framework. Asia GSD is committed to fostering dialogues on professional and scholarly concerns between students, academics and professionals around the word.

Canada GSD
Canada GSD seeks to act as a resource for those interested in Canadian topics, and to foster more communications among Canadian designers all around the world.

China GSD
China GSD seeks to act as a resource for those interested in topics on China, and to foster more communications among Chinese designers all around the world.

KoreaGSD
With a focus on architectural, cultural, and political issues, Korea GSD hopes to introduce Koreans and Americans to different needs and conditions of both nations. Working closely with the Harvard Korean Society, we work to create academic and professional relationships with the Far East.

LatinGSD
The Latin GSD pursues the institionalization of the interest in Latin America as a field of thought, critique and design in the Harvard community. Its main objectives are to open a permanent space of study and exchange towards the production and discussion of Architecture, Landscape Urban Design and Planning in Latin America and to strengthen the relationship between professors, students and intellectuals. It is also in our goal to sustain subjects of cultural diversity as a search for integration, constantly aiming towards an objective representation of the ideas and regions in its means of action.

Club Medina
Club MEDINA is a student organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for students interested in design issues in the larger Middle Eastern Region. Its aim is to provide a better understanding of the cultures and dynamics of the region and to promote dialogue and links between the academic and professional milieu. With members representing countries as diverse as Morocco, Israel, Kuwait, Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt, Japan, Cyprus, Iran, Palestine, and the United States, Club Medina investigates architectural and urban issues in the light of the critical political and economical regional developments. Founded in October 2001, Club Medina was initiated with a lecture by Iranian-American architect Nader Tehrani.

NOMAS
The GSD student chapter of NOMA (National Organization for Minority Architects) aspires to bring students, faculty and design professionals together to network, learn from each other and explore the built environment. Members regularly attend the annual NOMA conference and discuss what the GSD is accomplishing and bring ideas and information back to share with the GSD community.

Out Design
Out Design is an association for students of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer community and students interested in issues related to the LGBTQ community. We host social events and mixers with other Harvard LGBTQ graduate student groups (such as the KSG, HLS, and HBS) and similar groups at MIT, as well as with GSD alumni. We provide an email forum for the exchange of information among members regarding political issues, community events, and informal social gatherings. Our growing membership is committed to expanding the activities and visibility of OutDesign.

SOCA (Social Change and Activism)
As a group of concerned students who view social responsibility as central to our education and our profession, SoCA seeks - through a coupled advocacy and activism - to reground design and planning in the social issues of today's global reality.

Women in Design (WiD) Spring Symposium
March 13, 14, 20, April 14

Women in Design (WiD) works to increase the visibility of practicing women designers and to further incorporate their experiences into our education at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University. WiD offers a supportive network and a critical forum in which students from all departments of the school — Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design—discuss topics ranging from studying at the GSD to operating in the professional environment. Other activities, including conversations with faculty and visiting practitioners, aim at connecting current students to practicing designers while simultaneously addressing some of the fundamental issues students face when they transition into the professional world. Recently WiD hosted larger-scale symposia on issues facing women in the design fields today.

Curricula

The GSD has a long tradition of offering studios and courses focusing on non-western traditions but also encompassing a wide range of societal and physical environments in the U.S. Below is a sampling from the 2008-2009 academic year.