Interdisciplinary Feminist Practices as Insurgent Possibilities: a conversation with Shana M. griffin
November 13th, 2024 at 3 p.m. Harvard ArtLab 140 N. Harvard St, Allston, MA 02134
This artist talk is part of the Design Within Conflict lecture series curated by 2024 Senior Loeb Scholar Malkit Shoshan at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. It is cohosted by ArtLab and the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative at Harvard Divinity School.
Shana M. griffin, the 2025 Loeb/ArtLab Fellow, is a feminist activist, sociologist, abolitionist, artist, and geographer based in New Orleans. Her practice is research based, activist centered, and decolonial, centering the experiences of Black women most vulnerable to violence and social exclusion. She founded PUNCTUATE, a feminist initiative integrating critical research methods with activism and socially engaged art. She cofounded Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, the first community land trust in New Orleans.
Loeb Fellowship Symposium:“A Round Table – Makers and Users”
November 15, 2024 2:00PM – 09:00PM GSD, Gund Hall Piper Auditorium Free and open to the public
Join us for a symposium celebrating the past decade of the Loeb Fellowship and a farewell toast with the outgoing Curator of the Loeb Fellowship, John Peterson.
A round table has been the symbol and a spatial device of equality, exchange, and dialogue. It is also an apt metaphor for the ethos of the Loeb Fellowship and its commitment to the value of knowledge-sharing, relationships, community, and the impact these have on the agency of our work. A round table is where Loeb Fellows gather in Doebele House for their long-standing invitation dinners, and at the kitchen of the Fellowship’s Curator in Strobel House. Both are places where food and drink are elevated beyond sustenance, where human interaction seeks to change and enrich lives and transform each Fellow’s ability to make a difference in the world. These round tables have been witness to hundreds of hours of engagement by Fellows, faculty, students, friends, families, and guests.
This symposium brings five Loeb Fellows from the 10 years of John Peterson’s curatorship to share stories of how interdependence and collaboration have been instrumental to the success of their work, exemplifying and extending the Loeb Fellowship’s vision and reach. This program positions interdependence as a multiplier in a chain of influences through projects, collaborations, ideas, policies, activism, commitment, and tenacity. It also recognizes that our work and wellbeing require us to be dependent beings.
The five Loeb storytellers will delve into the value of dialogue, fellowship, and sharing as acts of care that broaden the intellectual and human horizons of the shapers of our environment. These practices not only cultivate networks of support and personal growth but also challenge the conventional values of authorship and exclusivity.
Food, drink, discourse, and fellowship will be the mediums for the program’s intellectual enrichment and the advancement of social good. Join us for this symposium featuring stories of collaborative efforts for social change, a round table discourse, and a cocktail reception with a farewell toast with John Peterson.
Closing Presentation and Farewell Toast with John Peterson 6:30-7:15 pm Piper Auditorium
Reception 7:15-9 pm Porticoes
Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.
Hard To Swallow: A Food Show Not About Food
November 19, 2024 6:30-8:30 PM GSD, Gund Hall Piper Auditorium
Join us for a test screening of Hard To Swallow, an unreleased docuseries from Loeb Fellow Tunde Wey. Essayistic and reflexive, the series describes Wey’s career while examining the social structures that disenfranchise Black people globally. The 6-part docuseries premiered at CANNESERIES and SeriesFest in the spring of 2024 and will be released in 2025.
The screening will feature the pilot and finale episode (27 mins each), as well as a digital short, followed by a panel of Loeb Fellows discussing the broader themes of the episodes. The event will end with a Q&A with the filmmakers and a principal subject from the docuseries. The post-screening activities will be recorded, and attendees will receive a jar of spice featured in the show (while supplies last).
The 2025 Loeb Fellows are ten innovators who are transforming public spaces and urban infrastructure, rectifying health and environmental injustices, addressing housing needs, and preserving cultural, natural, and architectural heritage. In 3 groups they presented their work and practice with short videos and engaged with each other through Q&A moderated by curator John Peterson.
5/3/24 The 2024 Loeb Year in Review
The Loeb Fellowship Class of 2024 reflects on their year as Loeb Fellows at the GSD and at Harvard and looks ahead to expanding their impact in the world.
2/27/24 Senior Loeb Scholar Lecture: Malkit Shoshan, “Designing Within Conflict”
Malkit Shoshan is an internationally celebrated designer, author, and educator. She is the founding director of FAST–the Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory, which creates projects at the intersection of architecture, urban planning and human rights. Using spatial design tools, she makes visible systemic violence, engages with the public to co-design socially and environmentally just alternatives, and advocates for systemic change.
10/17/23 Fall 2023 Loeb Lecture: David Gissen and The Architecture of Disability
In his new book The Architecture of Disability, David Gissen situates experiences of impairment as a new foundation for the built environment. He is joined by GSD alum Sara Hendren MDES ‘1 to look beyond traditional notions of accessibility and positively reimagine the roots of architecture.
9/13/23 Meet the 2024 Loeb Fellows
5/5/23 Loeb Fellowship Class of 2023 Final Presentations
The 2023 Loebs look back on their year at the Harvard GSD and ahead to new challenges.
11/13-16/22 Guy Nordenson, Senior Loeb Scholar
Structural engineer Guy Nordenson ’94 has been involved in the design and construction of complex and challenging projects, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. Moreover, for the past 15 years, he has developed strategies for climate change, coastal adaptation, and storm surge mitigation through research, publications, exhibitions, and consultation with national stakeholders.
10/8/22 Paint+Plants+Poetry: Seitu Jones and Soyini Guyton
Artist Seitu Jones ’02 and poet Soyini Guyton describe their projects in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota–which include art installations, a community farm, a half-mile-long dinner table—all with the aim of achieving the beloved community.
10/6/22 Loeb Fellowship 50th Anniversary Symposium Keynote: Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson with Virginia Prescott ’02
Marine biologist and policy expert Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson takes a grounded and hopeful approach to the climate crisis, promoting the Blue New Deal as a roadmap for including the ocean in climate policy.
9/14/22 Meet the Loeb Fellowship Class of 2023
The 2023 Fellows are ten innovators who work across housing, public space, media, environmental sustainability, real estate development, gender equity, and other fields to advance positive social outcomes around the world.
5/6/22 2022 Loeb Fellows: Final Presentations
The Loeb Fellowship Class of 2022 reflects on their year at the GSD and at Harvard and looks ahead to returning to their communities and expanding their impact in the world.
4/13/22 Loeb50 Urban/Rural: Divided or Cojoined
Peter Stein ’81, moderates a discussion with Mark Anderson of the Nature Conservancy, Mary Means ’81, and Kolu Zigbi ’15 to examine responses to climate change which cross urban-rural boundaries with a synergistic approach.
3/1/22 Senior Loeb Scholar Lecture: Lesley Lokko
Lesley Lokko is the founder and director of the African Futures Institute in Accra, Ghana, and curator of La Biennale Architettura di Venezia 2023.
In an episode of The Nexus podcast, Lesley Lokko delves into the relationship between fiction writing and architecture and the role of the school in preparing future architects.
11/12/21 Loeb50: Mobility in the Post Pandemic City
Andrew Salzberg ’20 moderated a lively conversation with Seleta Reynolds, Dorval R. Carter, Jr., and Rit Aggarwala, about the challenges and opportunities posed by the Covid pandemic for the future of cities and transportation.
10/8-10/21 Black In Design Conference–Black Matter
Mpho Matsipa ’22 offered a keynote lecture at the fourth biannual Black in Design conference Black Matter;Michael Uwemedimo and Jordan Weber were also on the roster.
Poet, memoirist, and teacher Reginald Dwayne Betts reflects on the challenges of living in the shadow of mass incarceration with a story of violence, love, and fatherhood. The recording is not available at the request of the speaker.
The Loeb Fellowship presents the Loeb Fellowship Class of 2022, ten innovators who work across activism, public art, film and media, technology, real estate development, and other fields that advance positive social outcomes around the world. The Class of 2022, in conversation with GSD faculty members, present their work and engagement with critical issues of the current moment.
4/5/21 Small Town Urbanism in the 21st Century
Andrew Freear LF’18, director of Rural Studio at Auburn University; Faranak Miraftab, professor of urban and regional planning at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and Todd Okolichany, director of planning and urban design for Asheville, North Carolina bring their unique perspectives to a panel moderated by GSD faculty members Eve Blau and Diane Davis.
4/2/21 Beyond Inclusion: The Role of the Built Environment in Advancing Equity
Kimberly Driggins LF’16, Shaney Peña-Gómez LF’18, and Tracy Metz LF’07 are practitioners from the predominantly male worlds of media, planning and community development, design and architecture. They bring their distinctive views of diversity to a conversation about where we are in the design professions and what transformation is necessary to reflect the complexity and diversity of the communities we’re meant to serve.
2/25/21 When Memory is Not Enough–A conversation with Walter Hood and Garnette Cadogan
Garnette Cadogan is the 2020-2021 Harry W. Porter, Jr. Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. Walter Hood, 2021 Senior Loeb Scholar, is the award winning founder of Hood Design Studio and professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at UC Berkeley. His latest publication is Black Landscapes Matter.
2/22/21 When Memory is Not Enough: the 2021 Senior Loeb Scholar Lecture
The 2021 Senior Loeb Scholar Lecture features Walter Hood, whose landscape designs are celebrated for their respect for ecological and cultural, contemporary and historic context. Hood is the award winning founder of Hood Design Studio and professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at UC Berkeley. His latest publication is Black Landscapes Matter.
Award winning chef and restauranteur Marcus Samuelsson in conversation with Thelma Golden, Mark Raymond, and host Toni L. Griffin LF ’98.
10/8/20 The 2020 Loeb Lecture
Edgar Pieterse, the NRF South African Research Chair in Urban Policy and founding director of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, calls for innovations that take advantage of new investments, technology, and local assets and support civic empowerment to respond to the daunting challenges of African cities.
10/1/20 Emmanuel Pratt Lecture
Emmanuel Pratt LF’17 takes viewers on a tour of the Sweetwater Foundation, a nonprofit based on Chicago’s South Side which engages local residents in the cultivation and regeneration of social, environmental, and economic resources in their neighborhoods. His work earned him a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship.
9/25/20 In Pursuit of Equitable Development: Lessons from Washington, Detroit, and Boston
A joint venture of the Loeb Fellowship, the Joint Center for Housing Studies, and the Department of Urban Planning.
9/17/20 Loeb50: 50 (More) Years of Fellowship
A conversation between Loeb Fellowship curator John Peterson LF’06, curator emeritus James Stockard LF’78, moderated by Tau Tavengwa LF’18.
