The University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Graduate School of Architecture (GSA) at JBS Park hosted Dr Harriet Harriss, from 13 to 17 March 2023 as part of the GES initiatives. Dr Harriss, who served as Dean of the Pratt School of Architecture in Brooklyn, New York from 2019-2022, has made pioneering contributions to the field of architectural education.
During her visit, Dr Harriss engaged with GSA staff and students, sharing her insights on various themes such as feminism, equity, decolonisation, diversity and inclusion, civic engagement, climate crisis, and queer ecologies. Her thought-provoking public lecture, held at the new GSA space, GSA: Home at JBS Park, allowed her to share insights into her perspectives on the nuances and complexities of architectural pedagogies.
Dr Harriss also launched her latest book at a symposium hosted by the GSA on 17 March 2023 – The Routledge Companion to Architectural Pedagogies of the Global South, which she co-edited with Ashraf Salama and Ane Gonzalez Lara. The book aims to resituate and recentralise an array of pedagogic approaches that have been produced or proliferated from the Global South. It challenges the linguistic, epistemological, and disciplinary conceits that, under imperialist imperatives, ensured that these pedagogies remained maligned or marginalised.
Dr Harriss’s visit was a tremendous success, and her contributions to the field of architectural education will undoubtedly continue to inspire scholars, educators, and students worldwide.
During her visit Dr Harriss was interviewed by Charles Leonard and the podcast can be accessed here:
