Shattering the Glass Box: Unraveling the Role of the Undergraduate Architecture Curriculum in the Exclusion of Women Architects of Color

Principal Investigator:
Kamila Diaz Calderon

Faculty Advisor:
Camille Sherrod

Abstract:
One of the most effective approaches toward the goal of equity and inclusion in our society is increasing diversity and representation. Research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Staton, 2019), shows that representation does matter, especially when it comes to academia where we see a direct correlation between the representation of people of color (POC) as professors, faculty, and in curricula, positively influencing the academic success of students of color. This research sought to analyze the demographics of architecture in education and the profession specifically when it comes to the exclusion of women of color. In particular, 58 undergraduate architecture programs accredited by the National Architecture Accreditation Board (NAAB) were researched, finding that 44.8% of the schools do not explicitly mention non-Western architecture in any history or theory courses. The lack of representation in the first step of the career of women architects of color, being their education in which they make up over 50% of the undergraduate architecture student body (NAAB, 2022), can be directly affecting their personal and professional achievements and aiding in their exclusion not only when it comes to the classroom, but to a larger concern, in their workplace. Based on existing research combined with our own we suggest NAAB require all accredited schools of architecture to include history and theory courses about architects of color in their curricula, specifically Black and Latinx architects, where students learn about other professionals that look like them and who have succeeded in the same path that they are headed towards.