Tamar Zinguer, assistant professor of Architecture, is the recipient of the Forum Public Fellowship for the 2022-2023 academic year. Awarded by the Arts and Humanities Forum at the University of Oklahoma, the fellowship’s purpose is to foster an interdisciplinary intellectual exchange among a diverse group of scholars around a shared theme.
The theme for this year’s fellowship is “Porous,” and Zinguer applied to the fellowship in order to further develop her book manuscript Model Desert: A Cultural History of the Sandbox. With the Forum Public Fellowship’s support, Zinguer is writing the introductory chapter, entitled “Grains of Sand.” This introduction focuses on the porous nature of the physical material sand as well as the use of sand as a common literary allegory for experimentation, transformation, and becoming.
Children playing in sandbox at Tulare migrant camp, California, 1940.
Arthur Rothstein, FSA/OWI Collection, Library of Congress.
Another part of the fellowship’s mission is to engage the larger community and the public sphere. Professor Zinguer will present a public lecture about the history of the sandbox, a public space that is almost always shared. The lecture will bridge the disciplines of education and pedagogy, architecture and its history, urban design and landscape architecture, as well as art and art history.
The talk will encompass notions of childhood and creativity, play, architecture and the city, and art. It will also discuss literary pieces that involve aspects of sand. It will appeal to a diverse audience. Anyone who has ever played in a sandbox and remembers the experience fondly will enjoy the lecture.
The lecture will take place on May 4, 2023, at ARTSPACE@Untitled, 1 NE 3rd Street, Oklahoma City, in the Deep Deuce District. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for refreshments. The lecture will start at 6 p.m., followed by a reception at 7 p.m.
Associate Professors Lee Fithian, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Pober have published a chapter in the recently released New Perspectives in Indoor Air Quality, published by Elsevier. Their contribution, titled “Chapter 16 – Architecture and the Challenges of Indoor Air Quality,” examines the relationship between architecture and indoor air quality.
Dr. Ladan Mozaffarian, Assistant Professor of Regional and City Planning, has been selected to serve as Co-Chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Planners of Color Interest Group (POCIG) for the 2025–2027 term.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Tahsin Tabassum, a recent graduate of the college’s Master of Regional and City Planning program and current doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine, for receiving the prestigious 2024–2025 American Planning Association (APA) Outstanding Student Award.
