Challenging Power Dynamics in the Classroom
Tools: Diagramming, Research, Discussion
Feminist Spatial Practices
Feminist Spatial PracticesFeminist Spatial Practices
Feminist Spatial Practices
Feminist Spatial Practices is a global collective and online platform that highlights, shares, and nurtures feminist practices in art, design, architecture, and activism. This course will experiment with co-creative methods that challenge existing binaries and hierarchies in design practice and education, drawing inspiration from the collective’s interactive online archive. Through connecting participants with past and present feminist practices, it aims to build community within and beyond the classroom.
‣ Collaboration‣ Embodiment‣ Care‣ Well-being ‣ Solidarity‣ Feminism
Dates & Times
February 23: 2–4PM EST
March 9: 2–4PM EST
March 23: 2–4PM EST
LocationOnline
Cost$0
Age18+
LanguageEnglish
MaterialsLaptop with Wi-Fi
Accessibility SupportsClosed-Captioning, Access to Recordings
Max Students20
Course Description
This course will comprise close reading and listening, group discussion and activities, mini lectures, screenings, and independent study. Participants will read and discuss core textual, audio, video sources, unpack existing power dynamics in classrooms, and practice processes of care and embodiment in learning, collaborating, and making.
Participants will curate a selection of feminist projects from the online archive to guide future work, and design one physical artifact that invites embodied interaction. This course will take up four hours weekly for three consecutive weeks.
Session 1
Session 2
Building Community Collaborations
Tools: Dialogue, Active Listening, Advocacy
Session 3
Cultivating Embodied Practices
Tools: Performance, Drawing, Construction, Cooking
Teacher(s)
Bryony Roberts
Bryony Roberts leads the design and research practice Bryony Roberts Studio and is a founding member of Feminist Spatial Practices and WIP Collaborative. Roberts approaches design as a social practice, working with local community groups and advocates to respond to the lived experiences and cultural histories of a place.
Abriannah Aiken
Abriannah Aiken (she/her) is a designer and activist. She joined DLR Group in 2022, where she specializes in urban planning and cultural and performing arts projects. She is the co-founder and New York Operations Officer of Architecture + Advocacy, an organization that works to un-design spatial injustice in the built environment through community workshops and design builds, including the Sustainable Futures Youth Design Build.
Layna Chen
Layna Chen is an architect, researcher, and educator. She is currently a Masters of Environmental Design candidate at the Yale School of Architecture. She is interested in how communities can imagine new ways of living in precarious climates and her current research looks at how value and visibility are co-constructed through cartographic practices.
Ridhi Chopra
Ridhi Chopra is the Co-chair of Creative Outreach at Feminist Spatial Practices and a full-time designer at PlanA Architects in New York City. Deeply committed to fostering inclusive environments, Ridhi actively engages in conversations aimed at redefining architecture’s role in prioritizing care and inclusivity within the built environment.
Elizabeth Cox
Elizabeth Cox is a London-based spatial practitioner, researcher, and writer. She currently works as a researcher for Feminist Spatial Practices and as a spatial designer at Kevin Haley Studio. Her work deploys a decolonial, queer, feminist lens, aspiring to amplify under-represented voices.
Cynthia Deng
Cynthia Deng is faculty in the architecture department at the School of Architecture, Art and Design at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Querétaro campus, and a co-founder of the interdisciplinary design collective ‘bags.’ Her recent work and research focus on the spatial politics of waste, materials, repair, and care work, with an orientation towards socio-ecological justice.
Lindsay Harkema
Lindsay Harkema is an architect and educator based in New York City. She is a cofounding member of WIP Collaborative, an award-winning, multidisciplinary design practice whose work engages the public realm through inclusive shared spaces informed by local communities and context. She teaches at Barnard + Columbia Colleges and The City College of New York.
Katie Rotman
Katie Rotman is a designer, researcher, and educator. Her research on play and collective engagement shapes her design of interventions and pedagogy that empower participants to find agency in their built environment through community action. Currently, she’s teaching at New York City College of Technology and collaborating on the design of learning and play spaces.
Amiti Singh
Amiti Singh is an architect and illustrator and Co-chair of Creative Outreach Working Group. She is currently working as an Architectural Designer for Bjarke Ingles Group in London, specializing in large-scale architectural projects. In addition to spatial design, she has also designed illustrations for numerous publications, competitions, and studios based in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, London, and Australia.