The Design School Lectures on Experimentation: Liz Ogbu and Christine Gaspar
Join The Design School at ASU for our free lecture series featuring lead designers and design thinkers from around the world!
Our featured lecturers for April are social designer Liz Ogbu and Executive Director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy Christine Gaspar. As designers, both of these women examine the impact we can make to address social justice in a complex world.
About the 2018–19 Lecture Series
This year's theme will focus on "Experimentation." Lecturers will discuss how they are pushing boundaries in their field as well as share compelling examples of experimentation within their profession and the design world.
About Liz Ogbu
Liz Ogbu is a designer, urbanist and social innovator. Ogbu is an expert on social and spatial innovation in challenged urban environments globally. From designing shelters for immigrant day laborers in the U.S. to a water and health social enterprise for low-income Kenyans, Ogbu has a long history of working with communities in need to leverage the power of design to catalyze sustained social impact. She is also adjunct faculty at University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford’s d.school.
Her projects have been featured in museum exhibitions, and she has been profiled in publications globally. Her honors include IDEO.org Global Fellow, Aspen Ideas Scholar and one of Public Interest Design’s Top 100. She earned architecture degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard University.
About Christine Gaspar
Christine Gaspar is executive director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy, a New York-based nonprofit whose mission is to use the power of design and art to increase meaningful civic engagement, particularly among historically under-represented communities. She partners with designers and community organizations to create visually-based educational tools that help demystify complex issues impacting their communities, from zoning law to immigrants’ rights.
Her projects are in use by dozens of community organizers and tens of thousands of individuals in New York City and beyond; have been featured in art and design contexts such as the Cooper-Hewitt Museum's National Design Triennial, PS-1 and the Venice Biennale; and recognized with a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Institutional Achievement, the Curry Stone Design Prize and the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.
Gaspar holds master's degrees in architecture and city planning from MIT and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. In 2012, she was identified as one of the Public Interest Design 100. She has taught at Parsons, Pratt, School of Visual Arts and Mississippi State University.