Join Woodbury School of Architecture for a roundtable discussion as part of the Year of Climate Justice with Rashida Ng, Thurman Grant and James Rojas. The discussion will be moderated by Patricia A. Morton, an architectural historian, critic and activist, as well as Associate Professor in the Media and Cultural Studies Department at UC Riverside.

Rashida Ng, Temple University, Philadelphia

Rashida Ng is an associate professor and chair of architecture and environmental design with the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. Ng served as president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture in 2019-2020, the first African-American woman to hold this position. Ng's research seeks to negotiate the complex interrelationships between constructed and natural systems. She has authored numerous papers on these topics and co-edited the book, Performative Materials in Architecture and Design in 2013. More recently, Rashida has turned her attention to the intersection of racial and environmental justice in architecture.

Thurman Grant, Grant Gillis Architecture, Los Angeles

Thurman Grant is a Los Angeles-based architect and educator who has worked on a long list of commercial, residential, and institutional projects, as well as award-winning design competitions in the U.S. and Asia. Ongoing work includes several projects for HomeWorks: Bronzeville that focus on the development of artist live/work spaces and serve as part of arts-related revitalization efforts in the Milwaukee neighborhood. Grant taught at Woodbury University from 2005-2016 and he is a former president of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. He is the co-editor, with Joshua G. Stein, of Dingbat 2.0: The Iconic Los Angeles Apartment as Projection of a Metropolis, released by DoppelHouse Press in 2016. 

James Rojas, PLACE IT!, Los Angeles

James Rojas is an urban planner, community activist, and artist. He has developed a community engagement/visioning tool that uses memory, emotion, and design, to remove structural racism from urban planning. This one-hour, knowledge producing approach provides in-depth, and meaningful input for projects, and plans. He has facilitated 1,000 workshops and built 250 interactive models around the world- from the streets of New York to Mexico, Canada, Europe and South America. He has collaborated with municipalities, community groups, schools, and museums to engage, enlighten, and encourage self determination mainly in underserved communities on transportation, housing, health, and climate change.