Architecture Professor Joins Multidisciplinary Panel on “What Dirt Is Not”

Associate professor of Architecture Tamar Zinguer recently contributed to a dynamic, multidisciplinary conversation as part of the University of Oklahoma Arts & Humanities Forum’s 2025–26 theme year, “Dirt.” The event—“What Dirt Is Not: Thinking with Loess, Sand, Shell, and Dust”—brought together scholars from across the OU and beyond to examine how different kinds of earth and sediment shape environments, histories, and cultural narratives.

This program marked the second event in the Forum’s four-part public series. Moderated by Kim Marshall, Director of the Arts & Humanities Forum at OU, the discussion featured perspectives from Geosciences, Anthropology, Architecture, and the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program. Together, the speakers explored how materials such as loess, sand, shell, and dust carry scientific, social, and symbolic meaning—and how they challenge our assumptions about what “dirt” is and is not. 

The panel featured presentations by:

• Tamar Zinguer (Division of Architecture)
• Lynn Soreghan (School of Geosciences)
• Asa Randall (Department of Anthropology)
• Mary Larson (Oklahoma State University – Oklahoma Oral History Research Program)

Zinguer’s forthcoming book is titled Sandbox: An Architectural History (MIT Press), and her presentation on the panel explored the “imagination that is engendered by sand.”

A full recording of the panelist’s presentations and discussion is available as a podcast episode on OUAH.FM, a collection of podcasts and audio resources created by the Arts & Humanities Forum.

The 2025–26 Forum series will continue throughout the year with additional public talks, community-focused programs, and a faculty fellows initiative that invites deeper reflection on how “dirt”—in all its forms—shapes our landscapes, our stories, and our shared sense of place.