Spring 2021 PSLA Virtual Seminar Series
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Time: 12:00 -1:00 pm
WebEx Conference Room: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/meet/sop18006
VALUES, CULTURAL PROCESS & THE AGENCY OF LANDSCAPE
Abstract:
This talk is drawn from the author's work in the book Values in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design (2015, LSU Press). Landscape literacy and values self-awareness are key to empathizing with communities, constituents, and clients. Because all of us are design actors and agents at one level or another—in our choices, our tastes, our movements, our consumption, our expressions, in other words, in our impacts—we share collective responsibility for the conditions of our designed environment. The author argues that when we become conscious of the cultural context and impacts of our practices—as teachers, activists, consumers, citizens—we can exercise better ethical agency as design leaders and decision-makers.
Speaker: Dr. Elen Deming
M. Elen Deming, DDES, is Professor of Landscape Architecture and, since 2017, founding Director of the Doctor of Design (DDes) at North Carolina State University. Previously, she taught at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry. Prior to beginning her teaching career in 1993, Deming practiced for twelve years in planning and landscape architecture.
Deming’s signature courses as well as her scholarship looks two directions—towards the environmental humanities as well as research methodology. Past editor of Landscape Journal (2002-2009), Deming co-authored Landscape Architecture Research (2011, with Simon Swaffield). She continues to advocate for practice-based design research and transdisciplinary thinking for environmental designers. She has also edited two collections of essays: Values in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design (LSU Press, 2015), and Landscape Observatory: The Work of Terence Harkness (AR+D, 2017).
Currently, Deming is co-editing a book on design strategies to counter racist narratives in public spaces of the American South (forthcoming 2022, with Kofi Boone). Deming is a Fellow of CELA and ASLA and former VP for Research for the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF).
https://design.ncsu.edu/people/medeming/
For more information, contact: Sohyun Park at sohyun.park@uconn.edu