Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman to Present 'Unwalling Citizenship' Lecture Online on March 8

Image courtesy of Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman

The Political Equator, Estudio Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman, 2019

Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman will present the virtual lecture "Unwalling Citizenship" at 4 p.m. Monday, March 8, as part of the spring lecture series in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

Cruz and Forman are principals in Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, a research-based political and architectural practice in San Diego, investigating issues of informal urbanization, civic infrastructure and public culture, with a special emphasis on Latin American cities. They are also the John G. Williams Distinguished Visiting Professors in Architecture this semester in the Fay Jones School.

The Fay Jones School's spring lecture series is presented in collaboration with Places Journal, an internationally respected online journal of architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism, and the University of Arkansas Office for Diversity and Inclusion. The series is also made possible in part by a gift from Ken and Liz Allen of Fayetteville, part of an overall set of commitments the Allens have made to the school's programs and initiatives in diversity, equity and inclusion.

Registration for the entire lecture series is available on Zoom.

In their lecture, "Unwalling Citizenship," Cruz and Forman will discuss their work on "citizenship culture" at the United States-Mexico border, and the network of civic spaces they have co-developed with border communities to cultivate regional and global solidarities. They ask, in this increasingly walled world, and with the surge of anti-immigrant sentiment everywhere, can the idea of citizenship be recuperated for more emancipatory and inclusive democratic agendas?

Cruz and Forman lead a variety of urban research agendas and civic/public interventions in the San Diego-Tijuana border region and beyond. Their work blurs conventional boundaries between theory and practice, and merges the fields of architecture and urbanism, political theory and urban policy, visual arts and public culture. 

From 2012-13, the pair served as special advisors on civic and urban initiatives for the city of San Diego and led the development of its Civic Innovation Lab. Together, they lead the University of California, San Diego Community Stations, a platform for community-based research and teaching on poverty and social equity in the border region.

Cruz received a Master in Design Studies from Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is a professor of public culture and urbanism in the University of California, San Diego Department of Visual Arts.

Forman received a Doctor of Philosophy in political science from the University of Chicago. She is a professor of political theory and founding director of the Center on Global Justice at the University of California, San Diego.

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects.

This virtual lecture is open to the public. For details on watching the lecture, please visit the Fay Jones School's lecture page. To register for the entire lecture series, complete this form on Zoom.

For more information, contact 479-575-4704 or fayjones.uark.edu.