Archive
Accounting for the Debts of Exclusion
Our academic and credentialing institutions are designed to propagate knowledge within a limited terrain of inquiry. The status quo of anti-Blackness, White American and European supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, and inaccessibility is a product of their systemic exclusion and erasure of Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other people of color. The debts of omission incurred compounds with every cohort, generation after generation.The summer 2020 uprising was an iteration of the Black Liberation struggle that breached the walls of academic institutions with calls to action from students, alumni, faculty and staff. These courageous documents articulate a transformative vision for repayment of that debt which will require sustained commitment in the coming years and decades.
Taken together, the statements crystalize what is owed.
We are currently in the process of analyzing 275+ demands from students, alumni and faculty of 44+ schools in the United States and Canada. We look forward to sharing the results of our research with you.
The seeds of the Emergent Grounds Archive were collected by our co-facilitators in the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021. The Collection includes 44 statements and lists of demands written by students, alumni, faculty and others, addressed to the leadership of North American architectural institutions.
Access each statement by clicking on the titles below. Statements are organized in alphabetical order by title. Multiple entries for the same institution reflect statements written by distinct groups of organizers to that institution’s leaders.
10 Demands for Tulane Architecture
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
a letter to Ryerson DAS
Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario, CA
A Letter to the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
A-School Call to Action
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
An Open Letter to the Faculty and Staff of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Black DUSP Thesis
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
Call for Action
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
CED Architecture: A Call to Action
University of California, Berkeley, USA
COLLECTIVE OF STUDENTS WORK TO CREATE AN ANTI-RACIST INSTITUTION Cooper Union, New York, New York, USA
Comprehensive Diversity Initiative
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
Dear CAUS Administration
Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
Dear CoAD Community and Dean Patricia Belton Oliver
University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Demands for an Anti-Racist School & What is to be done? a statement of solidarity
Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
Design Justice Actions for Taubman College
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Design Justice at Pitt
University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Design Justice for Black Lives
University of Maryland College Park, USA
Do the Work: Demands for Action and Accountability in the MIT Department of Architecture
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
GSAPP Responds
Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
Letter to the AAP Community and Dean Meejin Yoon
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
Notes on Credibility
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA
On Dismantling Systemic Anti-Black Racism
University of Toronto, Ontario, CA
On the Futility of Listening
Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
Open Letter on Anti-Racism to the PSoA
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Open Letter to the Andrews University School of Architecture & Interior Design
Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA
Open Letter to YSoA in Support of BLM
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Re: SALA’s Statement: “Support for Black Lives Matter”
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CA
Response to the Dean of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design from Inclusion in Design
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
RISD Architecture NOMAS Response
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA
RISD BI+POC Student Demands for Racial Equity & Inclusion
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA
RSA Call to Action
Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
Syracuse Architecture Student & Alumni Response to the Killing of George Floyd
Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA
TTU Call to Action
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA
The Design School at ASU Design Justice Initiative
Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
The Limits of Your Recognition: Race and Diversity at the Department of Architecture
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
thoughts on…
Tulane School of Architecture, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Call to Action
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
University of Florida SoA Call to Action
University of Florida, Tallahassee, USA
University of Waterloo School of Architecture Racial Equity and Environmental Justice Task Force
University of Waterloo, Ontario, CA
Unlearning Whiteness
Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
USC ROSKI - Black Student Demands
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
UTSOA Undergraduate Demands For Equity
University of Texas, Austin, USA
We find ourselves in a time when history seems to be repeating itself.
University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA
WHERE IS DAL ARCH?
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CA