Felipe Flores has an inherent passion for teaching, a passion that is described as dedicated to honing his skills to positively affect the future. Flores recently won the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Award for his teaching responsibilities and effect as an educator and mentor.
Flores is a second year PhD student in Planning, Design and Construction at the University of Oklahoma. He strives to make the discipline of planning, design, and construction more inclusive of non-Western viewpoints by creating a more diverse and inclusive educational environment for emerging architects.
“During his time at OU, he has demonstrated an extraordinary passion for helping to shape just futures in higher education through his intentional engagement in mentoring of undergraduate students, organizing events that serve our student community, and actively seeking out learning opportunities to improve his instructional techniques,” said Dr. Angela Person, Director of Research Initiatives and Strategic Planning for the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture.
“It's an honor to work with him. Felipe is truly dedicated to honing his craft of teaching and mentoring,” Person said.
Flores’ research focus is the perception of time, space and body that indigenous communities of Ecuador use in the production of space, with the hope that their culture will not be lost, but rather strengthened. Likewise, Felipe's goal as an instructor is to promote equitable and accessible learning environments where diversity is celebrated, and learning is the result of peer collaboration and hands-on, reflective work.
The MAGS award recognizes the importance of excellence in teaching and mentoring as part of graduate education. One doctoral student and one master’s student were awarded with a citation and a $750 honorarium at the 79th Annual MAGS meeting in Chicago. The award is open to all graduate students with teaching responsibilities.
Felipe has taught several courses at the Gibbs College of Architecture, including Design Studio 1, Resilient Futures, Telesis: The Architecture Student Journal and Theory and Criticism of Architecture.
To read more about Felipe’s work, click here.
