Research Interests: Research Interests: Critical Race Studies | Cultural Studies | Historicism (Old and New) | African American Literature | Twentieth-Century American Literature | Contemporary Literature | Literature and the Arts | The Novel | Urban Studies

Irene Cheng is an architectural historian, critic, and educator. Her research explores the entanglements of architecture, culture, politics, and the environment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Milton S. F. Curry is dean and professor at the University of Southern California School of Architecture and holds the Della & Harry MacDonald Dean’s Chair in Architecture - positions he has held since 2017. Dean Curry is an academic leader and an accomplished scholar and designer. He has edited and co-edited six serial volumes of Critical Productive Journal and Appendx Journal; and has authored influential essays and articles related to architecture, urbanism, race and cultural theory.

Charles L. Davis II is an associate professor of architectural history and criticism at UT Austin’s School of Architecture. He received his PhD in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.Arch and B.P.S. from the University at Buffalo. His academic research excavates the role of racial identity and race thinking in architectural history and contemporary design culture. His current book project, tentatively entitled “Black By Design: An Interdisciplinary History of Making in Modern America” recovers the overlooked contributions of black artists and architects in shaping the built environment from the Harlem Renaissance to Black Lives Matter. He has published articles and essays in Architectural Research Quarterly, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Harvard Design Magazine, Log, Aggregate, Append-x and VIA.

Mabel O. Wilson (’91 M.Arch) is the Nancy and George Rupp Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, a Professor in African American and African Diasporic Studies, and the Director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS) at Columbia University. Wilson has published two books Begin with the Past: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture (2016) and Negro Building: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums (University of California Press 2012). She is currently developing the manuscript for her third book Building Race and Nation: Slavery and Dispossessions Influence on American Civic Architecture and co-editing the first ever volume on Race and Modern Architecture (University of Pittsburgh Press 2020). Her scholarly essays have appeared in numerous journals and books on art and architecture, black studies, critical geography, urbanism, memory studies.

Tamika L. Butler is Black, queer, and unapologetic. She is a PhD student in the Urban Planning Department at UCLA and a national expert and speaker on issues related to the built environment, equity, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion, organizational behavior, and change management. As the Principal + Founder of Tamika L. Butler Consulting, she focuses on shining a light on inequality, inequity, and social justice. She provides consulting, training, coaching, and public speaking for a wide range of organizations in the public and private sectors.

"Colloqate Design is a design justice practice specializing in architecture, planning, and community engagement. Our services are rooted in a deliberate process that centers the voice of the community throughout the timeline of a project. Equity in every aspect of our work. By our definition, equity is a civil and human right and a collective responsibility to ensure that all of a society’s shared resources, collective wealth, private and public institutions can be accessed equally by all of its members regardless of the circumstances of their birth. Colloqate is committed to dismantling inequity inbuilt, social, and political environments. "

Over 20 years of experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Specifically, she has experience in urban planning and real estate development, cultural planning and public-private development partnerships.

Specialties: strategic planning, neighborhood revitalization, real estate development, capital budget/finance, and creative placemaking (includes cultural planning).

Justin Garrett Moore is a transdisciplinary designer and urbanist. He serves as the program officer for the Humanities in Place program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where his work focuses on advancing equity, inclusion, and social justice through place-based initiatives and programs, built environments, cultural heritage projects, and commemorative spaces and landscapes. He has extensive experience in architecture, planning, and design—from urban systems, policies, and building projects to grassroots and community-focused planning, design, preservation, public realm, and arts initiatives. He is also the co-founder of Urban Patch, a social enterprise focused on sustainable design and development projects in the United States and Rwanda.

“Since it’s founding, MAS Context has grown into an innovative read with an interdisciplinary scope that enriches the perspectives of architecture and urbanistic practices. The journal is intelligently thematically conceived with a lens to view architecture and the city through the eyes of contemporary culture, politics and the environment. Iker’s accomplishment to develop this publication, exhibitions and events is very impressive and a testament to his rigor, creativity and brilliant use of graphic materials to present key topics. This kind of thoughtful approach is needed more than ever to further expand the discourse in contemporary spatial practices.”

Antonio Petrov, DDes
Editor of New Geographies