This research study, Beyond the Blueprint: Race, Gender, and Representation in Architecture, looks at the lack of representation of women and African Americans in the architecture profession. While the field has become more diverse over time. Women and African Americans are still underrepresented in architecture schools, among licensed professionals, in leadership roles, and in firm ownership. The research question guiding this study is: How do education, workplace culture, and systemic barriers contribute to the underrepresentation of women and African Americans in architecture compared to men and other racial groups? This study examines research articles, demographic data, and professional reports to better understand the barriers that affect access, success, and advancement in architecture. Areas of focus include the cost of education, access to mentors, workplace experiences, leadership opportunities, and retention in the profession. Intersectionality is the idea that people can experience more than one form of discrimination at the same time. For Black women in architecture, their experiences are shaped by both their race and their gender, which can create unique obstacles that differ from those faced by Black men or White women. This research argues that women and African Americans continue to face educational, financial, and workplace barriers that limit their opportunities in architecture. By identifying these challenges and discussing possible solutions, such as mentorship programs, scholarships, and diversity initiatives, this study aims to support efforts to create a more inclusive profession. Increasing diversity in architecture is important because architects help shape communities, and the profession should better reflect the people it serves. For African American women, diversity means having more opportunities to enter, succeed in, and contribute to the field of architecture. It also means ensuring that their perspectives, experiences, and voices are included in the design of buildings and spaces that impact diverse communities.

Using a mixed-methods approach, this study employs online surveys and interviews to examine the racialized experiences of Black female students at a Midwestern historically white college and university. This study questions how Black female undergraduate students navigate their sense of belonging in the classroom and on campus. I am also questioning whether these experiences affected the students’ academic performance.

Emerging from plantation life, representations of Black female bodies routinely reinforce doubly racist and sexist notions; labeling Black bodies as expendable and subject to dehumanization through exploitation, sexual violence, and exclusion. Popular media provides numerous tropes of Black womanhood that reassert white-supremacist ideas of Black women as deviant. Widespread access and use of the internet has allowed for marginalized communities to become a part of dominant media or mobilize against it; and in tech spaces, black women are often marginalized in the invention of tech and further objectified in the emerging media. Because of this inequality, digital and personal attacks against Black women become even more prevalent. Cyber-feminism, Glitch-feminism, and other virtual feminisms attempt to deconstruct dominant ideologies rooted in inequality that pervade the digital realm; yet often fall short. Commonly written by white women, these cyber manifestos disregard the complex issues the global woman faces. On the other hand, Black femme artivism complicates traditional modes of knowledge transfer and production, embracing a community centered approach in engaging with what it means to be a Black woman in the digital space. I will conduct a literature review to engage in the history of the digital revolution and the currently imagined digital futures and further perform an inductive qualitative content analysis of works by four multidisciplinary artists, Victória Cribb, Stephanie Dinkins, Tabitha Rezaire, and Qualeasha Wood. From these artists, I will focus on how they 1.) imagine themselves interacting with technologies. 2.) create/imagine new forms of decolonial technologies.

Oral histories play an important role in documenting the stories and experiences of community members (Kim et al., 2024). Collecting and sharing them is important because this allows information to be shared across many people that are not typically preserved in traditional written archives. Oral histories also carry cultural significance by preserving cultural heritage through lived experiences and firsthand accounts and can build intergenerational dialogue between older and younger generations (Kim et.al 2024). Using four oral history interviews between Black youth and adults, this project aims to highlight how intergenerational oral histories foster resilience. Preliminary findings revealed that adults’ transmitting their experiences and passing down their history to youth can teach and inspire youth through themes of connection, strength, and representation across generations. Findings from this project are expected to show how intergenerational oral history through storytelling can positively affect Black communities by building resilience between youth and adults.