Looking Askance

2021-22 Lecture Series

Following last year's Toward Racial Justice lecture series, which confronted percolating social issues head on, our 2021-22 public programs will continue to address the significance of such themes from vantage points informed by the socio-spatial disruption of the last few years. Whether offered in the form of a postscript, an aside, or even a look askance, the sideways view offered by our program will critically reflect on what might appear to be the status quo.

Please note in-person or virtual status of events 

AIA and AICP continuing education credits pending

Spring 2021 lineup

Stay tuned as additional event details are added!

  • Mark Jarzombek
    10/20/21

    Oct. 20, 2021

    Join Mark Jarzombek, professor of history and theory of architecture at MIT, as he explores the tension between the architect and the faber, and its disciplinary history tracing it forward even into the work of Mies van der Rohe and other more contemporary architects such as Maki and Associates and OMA.

  • Samaneh Moafi
    10/6/21

    Oct. 6, 2021

    Join Samaneh Moafi, senior researcher at Forensic Architecture, as she examines the role of image and video footage circulating on social media platforms in bringing accountability.

  • Alison Killing
    9/22/21

    Sep. 22, 2021

    Join Alison Killing, journalist and architect, as she shares her team's investigation of the network of detention camps built by China in the northwest region of Xinjiang, as part of its campaign of oppression against Turkic Muslims.

  • Peggy Deamer
    11/3/21

    Nov. 3, 2021

    Join architect and educator Peggy Deamer as she examines the structural role of competition in the field of architecture and identifies nodes for redirecting architectural creative talents.

  • Elgin Cleckley
    10/27/21

    Oct. 27, 2021

    Join architect and educator Elgin Checkley of _mpathic design to explore the firm's engagement with the urban fabric of Washington, D.C., during the summer of 2021. Experience what the built environment feels like through Blackness - a year after our collective racial reckoning - to achieve goals for inclusive public spaces. 

  • Renia Ehrenfeucht
    11/17/21

    Nov. 17, 2021

    Join Renia Ehrenfeucht, a professor of planning at the University of New Mexico, in a discussion on how grassroots action and everyday life has the power to reshape our societies and address grand challenges such as social and climate justice.

  • Joshua Prince-Ramus
    2/23/22

    Feb 23, 2022

    Join Joshua Ramus, founding principal of REX, as he presents "Rethinking Flexibility," a call to reconfigure the profession's continued reliance on antiquated modernist visions of flexibility: a blank slate (or white cube or black box) upon which any activity can occur - an approach that has historically produced banal, sterile architecture.

  • Yutaka Sho
    3/30/22

    March 30, 2022

    Join Yutaka Sho, co-founder of GAC, as she talks about how architects could deploy aesthetics as a tool to ally with the underrepresented.

  • Maggie Cao
    4/20/22

    April 20, 2022

    Join Maggie Cao, David G. Frey Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as she examines South American and Caribbean landscapes, arguing that“hothouse” plants and ruins helped construct the southern tropics as a colonial space defined by racial hierarchies.

  • Dolores Hayden
    4/27/22

    April 27, 2022

    Join Dolores Hayden, Professor Emerita of Architecture, Urbanism, and American Studies at Yale University, as she presents "Domestic Revolutions: Spaces of Care, Then and Now," reflecting upon how care work has evolved - particularly in context of the pandemic - and the implications of this labor for architecture and urban design.

  • Kenneth Bailey
    3/16/22

    March 16, 2022

    Join Kenneth Bailey, co-founder of the Design Studio for Social Intervention, as he reimagines the relation of infrastructure in which communities work and play together to improve the quality of public life.

  • Harry Dimitriou | 2022 Jammal International Fellow
    2/10/22

    Feb. 10, 2022

    Harry Dimitriou, Bartlett Professor of Planning Studies at the University College London, discusses the need for the development of enhanced and adaptive strategic decision-making frameworks for mega infrastructure investment. Dimitriou is also director of the OMEGA Centre for Mega Infrastructure and Development, based at University College London. 

  • Table Talks: Fill the Void
    3/9/22

    March 9, 2022

    Join local professionals and industry leaders for the annual "Table Talks" networking event. For the lecture portion of the event, Michael Tunkey, Denise Juron-Borgese and Stuart Green discuss the design process behind the 201 Ellicott mixed-use development project, including working within the Buffalo Green Code and navigating multiple community stakeholders to create affordable housing and a fresh food market in Buffalo’s Central Business District.

  • Débora Mesa
    2/23/22

    March 2, 2022

    Débora Mesa Molina, principal of Ensamble Studio, discusses her firm's balance of imagination and reality, art and science, toward innovative typologies, technologies and methodologies that advance architecture with an interdisciplinary approach. Through their startup WoHo, they are developing ways to increase quality and affordability in architecture through the integration of offsite technologies.

  • 2022 Spring
    1/11/22

    We're pleased to announce the Spring '22 lineup in this year's public programs series, convening thought leaders from across our disciplines to consider the socio-spatial disruptions of the past few years and offer critical reflection on the status quo. 

  • Spring '22 Public Programs
    1/11/22

    We're pleased to announce the Spring '22 lineup in our Spring 2022 public programs as we convene thought leaders from across our disciplines to consider the socio-spatial disruptions of the past few years and offer critical reflection on the status quo. 

Accessibility and Accommodations

Information on accessibility and accommodations can be found at archplan.buffalo.edu/visitor-info

The public lecture series of the School of Architecture and Planning is supported by the following individuals and companies:

The public lecture series of the School of Architecture and Planning is supported by the following individuals and companies: AIA Buffalo/WNY | Lori Duckstein | Viviane Jammal | Will and Nan Clarkson | Kelly Hayes McAlonie | UB Confucius Institute | UB Department of Architecture | UB Department of Urban and Regional Planning | UB Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab | Upstate NY Chapter of the American Planning Association