Queer Educators in Architecture Network
QuEAN - established in 2022 - is a network of queer spatial design educators – with a focus on queer theory, pedagogies, identities and its intersections with spatial design; inclusive of architecture, interior design, planning and beyond. The network is founded and chaired by Gem Barton (she/her), our Lead Academic Advisor at ArchitectureLGBT+
Join the network here. VIEW QuEANs In The Wild open source map.
A global research community on queer spatial pedagies: The Queer Educators in Architecture Network is an emerging constellation of queer spatial design educators connecting across the globe. We are a collaborative critical community of queer spatial practice in higher education. Our shared mission is to catalyse change within universities and schools, leveraging queerness as a lens to scrutinise and dismantle entrenched and uneven hierarchies within the education of the built environment. We celebrate and gather around queerness as a coalition of minoritized communities, as an (im)proper discipline, and as a way to approach research and education. Through events, research initiatives, and publications, we explore the intersections and conflicts between different interpretations of queerness.
First and foremost, QuEAN aims at building transnational and trans-institutional solidarity! We facilitate knowledge-sharing, offer support, and provide resources to develop queer spatial teaching practices. QuEAN will focus on growing and grounding the network, gathering our members and connections to discuss the needs and urgencies faced by our communities, and establishing ways to amplify, channel, and solidify the work of other peers and queers. In parallel, the network is organising and editing a series of publications to make visible current research and thinking around queer spatial pedagogies.
The committee:
Chair Gem Barton (she/her), Reader in Design Pedagogy, Royal College of Art, UK
Deputy Chair Colin Ripley (he/him), Professor School of Interior Design - Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
Research & Publications lead Olivier Vallerand (he/him), Associate Professor, École de design - Université de Montréal
Research Outreach Lead Janus Lafontaine Carboni (they, them), SNSF Postdoctoral fellow - Princeton/ETHZ]
Design Strategy lead Malcolm Rio (he/they), Inaugural Paul R Williams Archive Research Fellow- University of Southern California; Ph.D. candidate Columbia University
Communications Strategy lead Aidan Flynn (he/him), Researcher & Founder, Queer Space Lab - MIT
Professional Bodies Liaison Great Britain / Emily Crompton (she/her), Senior Lecturer - Manchester School of Architecture, Manchester Metropolitan University. North America / Jon Gould (He/him), Limited-Term Assistant Professor of Architecture, Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, GA
Communities Liaison Dirk van den Heuvel, Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft
Widening Participation lead Jennifer Kerr (she/her), University of Sheffield (UK)
Student Body Liaison Yidi Wang (she/her) Independent Researcher, Designer in Music and Architecture, AI and Architecture Master Student at IAAC, Barcelona
Exhibition/Events lead Ladislav Jackson (he/him) Assistant Professor, Brno University of Technology
Grant writing / funding lead Aaron Tobey (he/him), Assistant Professor University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Professional Development lead Simon Chadwick (he/him), deputy Head of School of Architecture and Landscape, University of Sheffield
The membership: Marc Cairns, Ángel Garcia, Daniel Tollady, Joel Sanders, Stathis Yeros Facundo, Torsten Lange, Adam Miller, Todd Levon Brown, Thomas Bryans, Toby Chai, Amelia Dray aka Milly Dray, Tarek Merlin, Daniel Costal, Uwe Bresan, Lucas Reitz, W Gavin Robb, Miguel Hernández Quintanilla, Rohan Shivkumar, Lisa Maillard, Leon Buker, Jess Westbrook, Finn Strivens, Trude Renwick, Barnaby Miles, Ai Bui, Michael Andrés Forero Parra, Ben Lapierre, Timothy Moore, Alexander Aurisg, Julianne J Peters, Adrienne Economos Miller, Adam Thibodeaux, Kleanthis Kyriakou, James Soane, Owain Caruana-Davies, Phevos Kallitsis