Equity and Justice
Visit this page often to keep up to date with our data and research efforts,
or sign up for ACSA’s Friday e-newsletter to make sure you never miss a release.
Queer in Architecture: Beyond Binaries
Where Are My People? Middle Eastern and North African in Architecture
Where Are My People? Native and Indigenous in Architecture
Where Are My People? Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander in Architecture
Where Are My People? Hispanic and Latinx in Architecture
Where Are My People? Black in Architecture
Where Are the Women? Measuring Progress on Gender in Architecture
Online Events
Dark Matter University: Lessons in Anti-Racist Design Pedagogy
In this session, members of the DMU collective will share one year’s worth of teaching experiences and efforts bringing new design education models to academic institutions all over the U.S. and Canada to better acknowledge and address the structural legacies of racial injustice. The courses that will be presented vary from introductory courses, to advanced seminars, to design studios. Unifying these efforts is a commitment to collectivity: each course is taught by at least two educators and experiments with cross-institutional, transdisciplinary learning environments that advocate for expanded criteria for success.
Advancing Scholarship on Equity and Justice across the Built Environment
This online discussion examines ACSA’s contributions to the past decade of research and creative practice that advances scholarship on equity and justice in built environments. A panel of ACSA Research & Scholarship Committee members will present preliminary findings from its review of ACSA publications, activities, and a survey of ACSA members, followed by dialog among participants.
Culturally Responsive Teaching: Providing an Equitable Architectural Education
As educators, our mission is to ensure that every student can succeed. As a discipline, architecture often prioritizes the “product,” and the “place” before considering the “people”. This lecture will share the theoretical framework originally established by Gloria Ladson-Billings in her efforts to reach students from diverse backgrounds, and the tangible strategies necessary for validating students’ voices. By developing a socio-political consciousness, Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) empowers faculty to engage students in ways that architects should engage the public.
Perspectives on Power Dynamics and Racial Equity in Architecture
This online panel is a discussion that includes professional, academic, and student perspectives that will examine the experiences of architecture students and faculty specifically related to the topic of “Power Dynamics and Racial Equity in Architecture”. The discussion will begin with panelist experiences that inform their understanding of the advancement of racial equity. Topics of power dynamics and gaps in knowledge that influence inclusion will be explored in relation to power dynamics within architectural education and the profession that need to be re-examined with relation to racial equity.
Define & Design the New Normal: FACULTY DIVERSITY & EXCELLENCE
This webinar seeks to unearth and address implicit assumptions and expectations in current faculty hiring practices, and to consider what characteristics and experiences are privileged by the application of these measures in order to more directly apply a diversity-minded approach to defining excellence. In the context of today’s changes, challenges, and opportunities in teaching, the panelists will present and explore innovative new practices which seek to diversify the profile of an architectural faculty.
Culture Change in Architectural Education
Students and faculty alike are calling for architecture schools to be more inclusive and equitable, particularly for women and/or BIPOC students. This session will feature students and faculty engaged in change processes, both tangible (i.e., curriculum, teaching/learning culture policies) and intangible (i.e., unwritten practices and cultural conditions). Speakers will give brief presentations followed by breakout discussions about the building blocks for teaching/learning culture. All participants are welcome to discuss their challenges and successes.
Developing Policies and Shifting Operations for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
This panel will share best practices to promote social equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at schools of architecture. What steps might schools take to develop and assess impactful and measurable EDI policies? What tools can schools and departments use to measure the increased awareness of, access to, retention in, and successful graduation from architecture programs for minority students? Participation in this workshop will jumpstart a program’s efforts to develop an EDI policy and imagine ways to respond to the 2020 National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) Conditions and Procedures.
Other Helpful Resources
Organizations
Publications
ACSA Data and Equity By Design
A Manual of Anti-Racist Architecture Education
JAE Online Review of The Color of Law by Diane Jones Allen
Racial Equity and the Future of Work in TAD 4:1 Translation
Stay Safe From the Hate Booklet
Un-Making Architecture: An Anti-Racist Architecture Manifesto
What Will It Take?: Reflections on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Architectural Education in JAE 73:2 Work
‘DEI’ discourse in higher education could do more harm than good | Guest Commentary in The Baltimore Sun, Dec. 17, 2021
Extended Resources
ACSA108 Virtual Conference and ACSA/ASINEA Border Workshop
AIA Guides for Equitable Practice
Examining Whiteness: An Anti-Racism Curriculum
Less Talk | More Action – 2019 Fall Conference
NCARB Demographics: AXP and ARE
NCARB Demographics: Career and Licensure
Online Discussions and Webinars
The long history of racism against Asian Americans in the U.S.
TIMELINE: This is Canada’s history of anti-Asian racism that COVID-19 has amplified
Submit Resource
We invite each of you to submit current coursework from any level of the curriculum, in any program, on any topic—studio, seminar, or lecture; design or research; foreign or domestic study.