Jacobie Smith

BIO

Jacobie Smith is an architecture PhD student at Penn and alumna of the Master of Science Architecture History and Theory program. After receiving her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Drexel University, Jacobie joined Penn to explore Black spacemaking histories and techniques utilized by the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Jacobie continues to study how interdisciplinary approaches can uncover connections between architecture, cultural identity, resistance, and spatial justice in themed public landscapes in her PhD research.

MS REPORT

Building for Black Knowledge and Black Power: Contextualizing the Black Panther Party’s Space Making Critiques of Learning Institutions

Why did you choose the MS program at PENN and what has it allowed you to achieve educationally?

"The MS program allowed me to explore spatial justice in a way that differs from a standard understanding of architecture or buildings as objects. Instead, I was given the flexibility to weave methodologies from Education, African American History, and Architecture fields to redefine what it means to seek and exchange knowledges as it applies to research and design activism."