Assistant profs. Sarah Little (Landscape Architecture) and John Harris (Regional and City Planning) recently published in the peer reviewed journal Urban Forum. The article uses maps drawn by youth living in Lusaka, Zambia’s informal settlements to better understand how those youth understand their environment. The analysis suggests that there are several social-spatial anchors of hope in the city’s informal settlements that simultaneously orient youth’s day-to-day lives and long-term aspirations. These findings suggest that the youth locate hope and despair throughout their settlements in discrete locations and also see hope as a group effort. The findings are also used to make recommendations for how urban managers can use this information to support the hopes of informal settlement youth.
Access their full article, entitled “Mapping Hope: How Do Vulnerable Youth Locate Hope in Informal Settlements?,” here.
Telesis, a journal produced by students in the University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, has earned first place in the 2026 Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals for its seventh volume, “Unfold.” This marks the fourth time the publication has earned recognition for excellence in student architectural journalism. It shares the honor with student journals from Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Cal Poly.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture congratulates Thinh "Henry" Duong, a master's student in the Division of Interior Design, for earning first place in the 2026 Robert Bruce Thompson Annual Student Light Fixture Design Competition.
Gibbs College of Architecture Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) Director and Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design (PLAD) faculty member Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., recently published a new book, Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum.
