Course Syllabus

Difference & Design is a transdisciplinary, transinstitutional hybrid course that examines how the built environment shapes—and can help transform—social, cultural, economic, environmental, and spatial inequities. Drawing on student-selected global and U.S. case studies—from San Juan to San Francisco, Kigali to Kansas City—the course situates design within intersecting challenges of racial and economic division, displacement and uneven opportunity, climate migration and environmental injustice, emerging technologies and mobility systems, the contested politics of public and democratic spaces, and the complexities of engaging diversity and cultural heritage. Students from architecture, landscape, urban design, planning, preservation, public policy, climate, and allied fields collaborate in seminar discussions, short analytic exercises, workshop sessions, and primarily individual consultation to develop counter-stories: evidence-based research and design narratives that surface overlooked actors, histories, and possibilities for spaces and places. Emphasizing culturally responsive practice, community knowledge, and policy relevance, the semester culminates in either a research paper or design project that advances an actionable vision for more just, inclusive, and climate-resilient places—and aligned with each student’s disciplinary background and emerging professional practice.

Syllabus Link Here