Norman, Okla. – In its third year of publication, the University of Oklahoma's student design journal, Telesis, has again earned national recognition. Telesis is organized by students and faculty in OU's Gibbs College of Architecture.
Recently, the Center for Architecture, a leading cultural venue for architecture and the built environment in New York City, announced the Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals. The award was founded to encourage student journalism on architecture, planning, and related subjects, and to foster regard for intelligent criticism among future professionals.
Telesis, the Gibbs College of Architecture’s student journal, received the award for its latest volume, "Isolation." The volume explores how design can influence one’s sense of belonging, a question Telesis will continue to explore in forthcoming editions. Topics such as incarceration, discrimination, and disaster displacement were areas of focus in contributors’ investigations regarding how design can be used to improve conditions for isolated individuals. The University of Oklahoma is joined by Yale University and the University of Michigan as 2022 honorees.
A spread from Telesis "Isolation"
The Telesis journal was first published at the University of Oklahoma in the 1970s and was discontinued after several years of publication. It was brought back in the 2018-2019 academic year. Students have since published three issues, “Design Against," “Metamedia," and “Isolation." Its upcoming issues, “Habitation” and “Adaptive Practice,” seek to explore new ways of being as well as the design processes needed to make co-produced habitation possible.
Telesis also received the Douglas Haskell Award during its first year after returning in 2019. The journal also received a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Art in 2021.
Contributors to “Isolation” included:
The organizers for Telesis "Isolation" included Evan Sack, Ben DeCuyper, and Ryan Godfrey. The primary faculty advisor is Dr. Angela Person. Prof. Marjorie Callahan provided essential support for this volume.
Flip through Telesis "Isolation" below!
The University of Oklahoma College of Architecture is proud to announce that Model Schools in the Model City, authored by Director of the Institute for Quality Communities, Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., has been named one of ten finalists for the 2026 ASALH Book Prize for Best New Book in African American History and Culture.
This semester, students in the LA 5535 Studio: Ecological Planning and Design, led by Prof. Afsana Sharmin, took on an ambitious hypothetical project to redesign key parts of the OU campus. Their mission: to tackle the critical real-world challenge of stormwater management through innovative green design.
Petya Stefanoff, Chair of the Educational Committee with the American Planning Association, Oklahoma Chapter (APA-OK) and Gibbs College PhD candidate, has developed a new training program for local government officials. The program, focused on land use, zoning principles, and land development, recently certified its first graduates with Certified Citizen Planner status.
