From STUD to Stalled!: Queer Space, 1996–2016

Mario Gooden and Joel Sanders discuss how concepts of queer space have shifted in the twenty-five years since Sanders published his pathbreaking exploration, STUD: Architectures of Masculinity.

Looking at STUD through a twenty-first-century lens, Gooden and Sanders will assess the book’s strengths and limitations. According to Sanders, the principles that shaped its methodology—the notion of performativity and the imperative to analyze and dismantle the architectural conventions encoded in building typologies, standards, and codes—are still relevant today. However, STUD is also a time capsule that was shaped and ultimately constrained by a reductive, outmoded binary conception of gender that was prevalent in both gender studies and queer activism in the mid-1990s. The discussion will explore how Sanders’ work, influenced by trans and disability studies, is now informed by a more expansive and inclusive conception of the intersectional nature of human embodied experience.

Sanders is principal of his New York studio JSA/MIXdesign, as well as director of post-professional studies and professor at Yale School of Architecture. Sanders’ career has explored the complex relationship between culture and social space as a scholar pioneering the exploration of LGBTQ space, a designer of residential, museum, and academic buildings, and an activist fighting to address issues of equity and inclusion through design.

The discussion will be followed by a live Q&A.

This program is free and open to all. Advance registration is required (via RSVP link). All registered participants will be sent a link to participate through Zoom.