Malkit Shoshan, design critic in Urban Planning and Design and 2024–2025 Senior Loeb Scholar, will address the graduating class of the Harvard Graduate School of Design during Class Day exercises on Wednesday, May 28.
Shoshan is a designer, researcher, and writer, and founding director of the architecture think tank Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory (FAST). FAST employs research, advocacy, design, and public art to explore the complex relationships between architecture, urban planning, and human rights.
“At the Graduate School of Design, we shape and design the built environment, space,” says Shoshan, “Yet, it is a challenging time to discuss space—space as territory, the land we inhabit and the value we imbue it with, but also space as a realm for thought, the space we extend to each other and ourselves to express ourselves, to learn, to grow, to evolve, and to thrive.”
Over the past year, in her role as Senior Loeb Scholar, Shoshan has shared her work with the GSD community and led discussions about design, conflict, and care. “This is an important moment of transition–not only for the graduating students, but for Harvard itself as an institution,” says Shoshan, “Speaking at Harvard on Class Day carries an added significance, as the institution is in the midst of a struggle to maintain the critical space of free thought, scientific inquiry, and diversity of expressions.”
Sarah M. Whiting, Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture, notes that “Malkit’s address offers an opportunity to reflect on the conversations she initiated and consider the urgent task of designing a world grounded in peaceful and constructive dialogue, respect for viewpoints different from one’s own, and the free exchange of ideas in the pursuit of new knowledge.”
In addition to her roles at the GSD, Shoshan was a 2024 Resident at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. In 2021, she was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale for her collaborative project Border Ecologies and the Gaza Strip: Watermelon, Sardines, Crabs, Sand, and Sediment, which is also the subject of her forthcoming book with Amir Qudaih.
Her award-winning books on spatial equity, peace, and conflict include BLUE: The Architecture of UN Peacekeeping Missions (2023), Atlas of Conflict: Israel-Palestine (2010), Village: One Land, Two Systems and Platform Paradise (2014), Zoo, or the Letter Z, Just After Zionism (2012). Shoshan’s research and design work has been exhibited internationally and featured in prominent newspapers, magazines, and academic journals, including The New York Times, The Guardian, Haaretz, and Harvard Design Magazine.
Shoshan’s address will take place in the Gund Hall Backyard as part of a ticketed event. Please check the GSD website for schedule updates and information about live-streaming.