Spring 2024 Zube Lecture Recordings

Presented by Ward Lyles, Associate Professor of Urban Planning, University of Kansas 

Emotions motivate public servants - we want to see community members flourish rather than suffer. But our education, training, and professional norms often lead us to control or avoid emotions in the course of work. In this Zube lecture, Professor Lyles explores the perils resulting from this "emotional paradox of public engagement" as well as paths forward to re-imagine public engagement as caring. 

Presented by Cassim Shepard, Distinguished Lecturer, Spitzer School of Architecture, City College, City University of New York

Urban change relies on strategic storytelling. Learn from the research, practice, and teaching of Cassim Shepard, an urbanist who has dedicated his career to developing qualitative skills of place-based analysis and representation in multiple media, including books, films, exhibits, strategic plans, and online journalism.

Panel Discussion with UMass LARP alumni:

Jessica Allen- Real Estate Project Manager, Valley Community Development

Christine Brestrup- Planning Director, Town of Amherst, Registered Landscape Architect in Massachusetts, and ASLA Member

Erin Howard- Director of Planning, City of Hartford

Presented by Chat Travieso, Artist & Designer

Chat Travieso shares his research project “A Nation of Walls,” which catalogues the history, physical remnants, and political legacies of race barriers erected to separate Black and White neighborhoods throughout the United States. Focusing on walls, fences, barricades, road closures, and buffer strips, the lecture explores how these obstructions materially divided and isolated communities, acted as overt symbols of exclusion and hostility, and reinforced discriminatory housing policies and practices. It also underscores the ways communities have circumvented, subverted, refused, protested, and some cases removed these structures.

Presented by John Taylor, Kota Kita Foundation

Cities and society are constantly evolving, and with them their priorities and needs; in response civil society organizations find new ways to support them. "A Role For All Seasons" shares how the local Indonesian nonprofit Kota Kita Foundation is adapting to the changing times in the rapidly urbanizing Global South context of Indonesia, to pursue an inclusive and democratic vision of a city for all.

 Presented by Rosetta S. Elkin, Professor, Pratt Institute

Drawing from her book, Landscapes of Retreat, Professor Elkin will share portraits of climate adaptation from field studies around the world: Nijinomatsubara Forest, Japan; Maule River, Chile; Niugtaq Village, Alaska; Langtang Park, Nepal; and Gaspésie Peninsula, Québec. These stories suggest that communities are more likely to adapt to change when the landscape is appreciated. How can we then rethink and rework “change” as a means toward shared climate futures?

Presented by Catherine De Almeida, Associate Professor, University of Washington, Seattle

How can landscape architects think and design differently with waste? In this Zube lecture, Associate Professor Catherine De Almeida offers lessons learned from seeing waste as a renewable resource in participatory action research and community-led projects.

Presented by Corien de Vries-Kuiper, Urban Planner, Rijkswaterstaat Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management

Did you know that more than half of the Netherlands is sensitive to flooding from sea or rivers? Spatial planner Corien de Vries-Kuiper shares how climate change's impacts are causing planners to rethink the approach to water management in the Netherlands. How can water become a guiding principle in spatial planning? Watch the lecture to learn more.

Presented by Zannah Matson, Assistant Professor of Environmental Design, University of Colorado Boulder

Landscapes across the world are marked by the intertwined processes of extraction and speculation. While speculative design proposals often claim generative potential for re-thinking the world beyond current constraints, this speculation can hold both promise and peril for addressing ecological and social injustice. Such speculative proposals are often bound to the systems of extractivism that configure the status quo. Weaving together research from the edge of the Colombian Amazon to the mining peripheries of Canada, this lecture explores the impacts of extractivism on contested landscapes and considers potential strategies for countering these patterns of social and ecological destruction through creative resistance.