Rashida Ng, Michael C. Henry, and Jamaal Green have been honored with G. Holmes Perkins Distinguished Teaching Awards for Academic Year 2023-2024. The Awards are presented annually to three members of the Weitzman faculty, based on nominations by students, to recognize distinguished teaching and innovation in the classroom, seminar, or studio.
Rashida Ng (MArch’01) is an architect, Presidential Associate Professor of Architecture and chair of undergraduate architecture whose courses include Design, Race, and Climate Justice, which examines material, spatial, and ecological practices in architecture and design that perpetuate racial inequities and exacerbate climate injustices. According to one student who nominated her, “As a student of Rashida, I have learned how to use architecture as a tool for social justice and community engagement.”
Ng’s research lies at the intersection of social equity and environmental justice. Focused on housing insecurity, Ng’s work examines historical and present-day design practices that perpetuate racial inequities and health disparities in black, indigenous, and other communities of color.
Michael C. Henry (GME’77) is an adjunct professor in the Department of Historic Preservation who teaches courses focusing on the deterioration and pathologies of buildings and on diagnostic methodologies and monitoring of buildings. One of the students who nominated him said, “He’s very down to earth and is such a supportive professor, taking time to get to know us all on a personal level.”
Henry is principal engineer/architect and founding partner of Watson & Henry Associates, where he has practiced for the over 30 years, consulting to institutions, cultural heritage stewards, and architects and engineers throughout the United States and in India, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, and Tunisia.
Jamaal Green is an assistant professor in the Department of City & Regional Planning whose courses include Modeling Geographic Objects, an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS) for a variety of environmental science, planning, and management applications. Among the nominations for him, one student wrote, “While having no prior exposure to the platforms or coding was a significant undertaking, Jamaal's belief in the class slowly but surely encouraged my own self-belief and confidence in the skills I would acquire by the end of the semester,”
Green is a planner and geographer interested in the ways that the organization of our built environments exacerbate or inhibit social inequality. His research interests include exploring the connections between land use and economic development planning, specifically concerning the role of industrial lands in urban labor markets and greater labor market restructuring, and the application of spatial analysis to policy problems.
The G. Holmes Perkins Distinguished Teaching Award is named in honor of the late G. Holmes Perkins, who served as dean of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, as the Weitzman School was then known, from 1951–1971.
One award given each year recognizes teaching at the undergraduate level, and two awards are given for teaching at the graduate level, for a member of the non-standing faculty and a member of the standing faculty.
Ng, Henry, and Green will be formally honored at the Weitzman Commencement Exercises on Saturday, May 18, 2024.
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