The list of speakers may be amended according to the evolution of topics. They include faculty and other experts from a diverse range of disciplines and with signficant international experience, similar to the guest speakers from 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. They are listed below in the likely order in which they will join the seminar.
- The Rev. Viktoria Parvin is a Lutheran pastor currently serving at Saint Mark Lutheran Church in Charlottesville VA. She was born in Budapest, Hungary, where she studied at the Lutheran Seminary at Budapest, participated and led youth camps, preached in small village churches. She received her Master of Arts and Master of Divinity degrees at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Her forming experiences were working with the Night Ministry and homeless in Chicago, chaplaincy at a nursing home in Upstate New York, completing many units of Clinical Pastoral Education and supervisory education and travelling back to Hungary to help Syrian refugees at the height of the crisis. This article St. Mark Lutheran’s new pastor fought the odds describes her unusual story: "St. Mark’s is one of only two Lutheran churches in Virginia that have the “reconciling in Christ” status, according to Marbury. “That means that we not only accept people from the LGBT community, but we affirm them. We’re not in the business of trying to change them, but we accept them for who they are. In looking for a new pastor, we needed someone who wholeheartedly believed in that mission. Viktória Parvin fit that bill.”
- Associate Professor Mami Taniuchi works with Eric Houpt, MD, and William Petri, Jr., MD, in developing molecular diagnostic assays to detect enteric pathogens that cause diarrhea and malnutrition. Her focus is to develop assays on platforms that can be used in low resource settings such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Thailand to study etiology of diarrhea and vaccine efficacy. She will discuss the field work such she has done in Bangladesh measuring pathogens in waste water systems. Her work is also relevant to a guest talk later in the term by Prof. Kory Russel on WASH systems from the University of Oregon. Taniuchi earned a PhD, Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia, an MS Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia, and BS,BE, Science & Engineering from Duke University. She holds a Courtesy Appointment in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, an Associate Professor of Medicine in Infectious Diseases and International Health, and a Joint Appointment in Biomedical Engineering.
- Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture Reuben Rainey, PhD, has taught in the School of Architecture for 34 years and is a former chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. His more recent coursework focused on the design of various types of healthcare facilities. As Co-Director of the School of Architecture's Center for Design and Health he is also engaged in a number of research projects centering on the design of patient-centered medical facilities and healthy neighborhoods and cities. A former professor of religious studies at Columbia University and Middlebury College, he entered the field of landscape architecture in mid-career. His publications cover a wide range of topics, including Italian Renaissance Gardens, 19th and 20th century urban parks, and the work of 20th-century American landscape architects. His co-authored book on the garden of the Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer received an honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. A documentary filmmaker , he co-produced the PBS seriesGardenStory, depicting the way gardens improve the lives of individuals and their communities. A recipient of five teaching awards, he is also a member of the Council of Fellows of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He recently completed a book on the modernist landscape architect Robert Royston in 2022, and a study of the design features of an innovative cancer hospital at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
- Associate Professor of Architecure and Associate Dean of Academics John Comazzi's teaching, research, and scholarship focus is on the following areas: mid-century Modern architecture and design; design theory and criticism; architecture photography; the design of active learning environments for PK-12 education; design for healthcare environments; and design-build practices for community development. He is the author a monograph on Balthazar Korab, one of the most prolific and celebrated architecture photographers of the Modern era (Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography, Princeton Architectural Press, 2012), and is currently writing a monograph on the Miller House and Gardens in Columbus, IN . Professor Comazzi joined the faculty in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia in the Fall of 2017 as the Director of the Design Thinking Concentration. Hired as part of the University's "Cluster Hiring Initiative," Professor Comazzi has partial appointments in the School of Nursing and the Curry School of Education where he collaborates on interdisciplinary teaching, research, and curriculum development.
- Dr. Eva (Evangelia) Papatzani is a researcher in Migration Studies and Human Geography/Urban Studies, based in Athens, Greece. Currently, she is a Research Associate & Co-Principal Investigator at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE). She holds a PhD in Urban Studies/Urban Social Geography and Migration Studies, from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). Her PhD thesis entitled “Geographies of migrant settlement and encounters with difference in urban space: negotiating social proximities and micro-segregations in Athens' neighbourhoods” has been supported by scholarships from the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI - GSRT) and the National Technical University of Athens. She has extensive research experience in international research projects including, among others, the Horizon2020 research project “TRAFIG, Transnational Figurations of Displacement” (https://trafig.eu/) and the Horizon2020 research project “RESPOND - Multilevel Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and Beyond” (https://www.respondmigration.com/). She has collaborated with different Universities and Research Centers in Greece such as the NTUA, the School of Spatial Planning and Development (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), the Department of Geography (University of the Aegean) and the Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH). Her research interests focus on the geographies of migrant and refugee settlement, displacement, borders, mobility, migration and asylum policy, refugee reception and accommodation, urban encounters with difference, urban diversity and ethnic difference, negotiations of social proximities, interethnic relationships and micro-segregation in urban space, institutional and everyday racism, neighborhood, everyday life, housing policies, and urban transformations.
- Maya Boutaghu is Associate Professor of French at the University of Virginia and Andrew W. Mellon Faculty (Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures). Her main research areas in Comparative Literature include: Multilingualism, Postcolonial Literatures, Literary Theory, Theory of the Subject, Historiography and Cultural Theory https://french.as.virginia.edu/people/profile/fmb5s. After graduating in Comparative Literature from University of Limoges, Maya Boutaghou who was born and educated in Algiers until 1994, received in 2008 an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at UCLA in the center for “Cultures in transnational perspective” directed by two major leaders in the field of Comparative Literature and Postcolonial Studies, Professor Françoise Lionnet and Professor Shu-mei Shih. Her long-term grounded research at the intersection between identity construction, history and poetics of the novel in 19th century informs her most recent work on decolonial forms of historiographies in North Africa. Trained in both French and Arabic, she applies a complex approach to cultural theory to avoid binary interpretations of postcolonial issues through the study of aesthetic phenomena. She holds a B.A. Lettres Modernes and FLE (Universités Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux III, a DEUG de Langue et Civilisation Arabes, mention « arabe littéral » [Diploma in Classical Arabic] Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux III, an M.A. Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux III, and Ph.D. (Doctorat) in Comparative Literature, University of Limoges.
- Harriet Kuhr, Executive Director IRC (International Rescue Committee), Charlottesville, earned her BA in Anthropology and French from the University of Virginia. Kuhr joined the Peace Corps early in her career serving in the Congo (formerly Zaire). Prior to taking her present position in April 2010, she was the Manager of Resettlement Services with the IRC in Atlanta. Her previous professional experience includes more than 20 years working in the field of international cultural exchange.The International Rescue Committee provides opportunities for refugees, asylees, victims of human trafficking, survivors of torture, and other immigrants to thrive in America. Each year, thousands of people, forced to flee violence and persecution, are welcomed by the people of the United States into the safety and freedom of America. These individuals have survived against incredible odds. The IRC works with government bodies, civil society actors, and local volunteers to help them translate their past experiences into assets that are valuable to their new communities. In Charlottesville and other offices across the country, the IRC helps them rebuild their lives.
- Phoebe Goodwin, Architect, Site Planner and Shelter Offices, UNHCR. This bio is taken from an article published on the https://www.unrefugees.org.au/our-stories web site. "Over the past six years, Australian architect Phoebe Goodwin has worked to shelter refugees and displaced people fleeing violence and conflict. Through her work as a Site Planner and Shelter Officer with UNHCR, Phoebe has seen the resilience and innovation of refugees who are determined to rebuild their lives. 'It never ceases to amaze me that in every humanitarian operation it is the refugees who spearhead improvements to their shelters,' Phoebe says “Especially in terms of their ability to construct improvised homes with such personalised design flair and ingenuity.” In Jordan's Za’atari refugee camp, home to around 80,000 Syrian refugees, families have modified their prefabricated containers to create homes. 'It never ceases to amaze me that in every humanitarian operation it is the refugees who spearhead improvements to their shelters' ... Today, Phoebe most recently worked for UNHCR in Mexico, where she was expanding shelter accommodation, conducting renovations and repairs and installing roof-mounted solar panels to reduce electricity costs. 'All people, not just humanitarians, can bring compassion and empathy to a crisis situation,' she says. 'I am passionate about encouraging and facilitating independence and fostering self-worth.' She now serving as Programme Manager and Support Office through the agency offices in Geneva.
- Alex Miller, USAID, B. Arch, Masters in Development and Emergency Practice. Before joining USAID Alex Miller had already specialized in designing shelters for those affected by the ongoing migrant crisis, as well as civilians whose homes have been devastated by natural disasters. “Disaster exposes a weakness in a community’s resilience,” said Alex Miller, B. Arch ’09. “You become resilient with better design. Disasters, for me, were an opportunity to explore design and expose design that hadn’t been taken advantage of before.” From September 2009-2010, Miller traveled with the organization Wonder Grass to develop sustainable bamboo housing for families in Nagpur in central India. For three weeks in December 2016, Miller worked with a non-governmental organization called Catholic Relief Services in Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia. Miller’s post-disaster work has also taken him to locales devastated by natural disasters, such Nicaragua, the Philippines, and Haiti; and areas where the inhabitants are beset by poverty, including India and here in the United States. In June 2016, Miller graduated from Oxford Brookes University in the UK, where he received a master’s in development and emergency practice through their school of architecture. That summer, a university scholarship and a U.S. government grant from the USAID Settlement and Shelter Office sponsored Miller to research housing programs in Nepal, Haiti, and Lebanon. “You can count on your hand the architects that want to do post-disaster relief,” he said. “It’s a career that’s so different.”
- Assistant Professor Dimitris Papanikolaou, DDes, of the National Technical University in Athens, is an expert in Urban Cybernetics, which focuses on how people share and interact in their physical environment. His research combines analog and digital means to develop enabling systems that connect humans through their built environment, and it investigates how humans interact cooperatively through these systems through analytical and empirical methods. He holds a Doctor of Design (DDes) from Harvard GSD, an MSc in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, a SMArchS in Design Computation from the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, and a professional Diploma in Architectural Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens in Greece.
- Kory C. Russel is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. Kory teaches courses on sustainable and human-centered design, courses on water, sanitation and public health, as well as a course in Environmental Studies. His primary research focuses on planning, designing, and implementing sustainable water and sanitation (WASH) services in low- and middle-income countries. He currently services as the Chair of the Container Based Santiation Alliance (CBSA). He has conducted extensive research internationally including in Haiti and Mozambique. He also spent 3 years in Mozambique serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. Russel earned a BS, 2003; MES, 2005, Taylor University; MS, 2013, Ph.D.,2019, in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University. This bio is excerpted from his UO faculty web site.
- Kevin O'hara is an architectural designer and holds a BS in Architecture with a minor in Global Sustainability from the University of Virginia. While working with Studio FH in Kampala, Uganda, Kevin was the project lead for The Bidi Bidi Music and Arts Center. The 5,620sf multi-purpose performance venue and civic center is currently being completed for the residents of the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement located just a few miles south of the Sudanese border. The ethos of this project - empowering disenfranchised populations with a design rooted in environmental and social consciousness - is archetypical of the project/client roster that Studio FH, cultivates. Together, under its umbrella contracting company, Localworks, Kevin worked alongside MEP (mechanical, engineering and plumbing) and structural engineers in a highly collaborative environment where iterative, full-scale prototyping, research, and frequent visits were at the foundation of the design process. He will report on his experience of 3-1/2 years of life and work in Uganda, His professional experience spans both American continents and Africa, where he has cultivated a focus on humanitarian design. Although interested in the potential for emergent technologies, he is primarily compelled by the rediscovery of accessible, sustainable, and vernacular modalities of design. Convinced that solutions for building a more equitable and healthy cohabitation are already available to us, his work seeks to explore and advance the wisdom of non-Western narratives through design.