Stephen F. Gray, a political and cultural justice advocate from Harvard University, will deliver the next presentation in the College of Architecture’s Hyde Lecture series at 4 p.m. Nov. 6.

The lecture, available via Zoom, will focus on “Design Processes for Racial Equity in the 21st Century American City.” The presentation is free and open to the public.

Gray’s lecture will explore the relationship between urban infrastructure and race in the United States. His talk will discuss the role race and class have played, and will continue to play, in the design and the production of physical space by interrogating design’s contribution to and complicity with structural and infrastructural racism. By sharing his approaches and experiences with urban design, Gray will illustrate how different processes, design methodologies and interventions can address inequity, exclusion and social injustice to produce more equitable public spaces.

Gray is associate professor of urban design at Harvard and founder of the Boston-based design firm Grayscale Collaborative. His recent research includes the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative, which is focused on systemic racism in the socio-spatial development of Boston; process design with the Global Design Initiative for Refugee Children for child-focused spaces; and working with the World Bank examining the interconnectedness of informality, vulnerability and resilience.

Gray is currently co-leading an Equitable Impacts Framework pilot project with the Urban Institute and High Line Network aimed at advancing racial equity agendas for infrastructure reuse projects across North America.

This presentation is part of the College of Architecture’s 2020-2021 Hyde Lecture Series featuring speakers from across disciplines that are united under the common theme of “Building Justice — Design and Planning for a Just Society.”

The college’s Hyde Lecture Series is a long-standing, endowed, public program. Each year the college hosts compelling speakers in the fields of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and planning that enrich the ongoing dialog around agendas which are paramount to the design disciplines and Nebraska graduates.