Taubman College New this fall, Taubman College announces the following tenure track appointments
Maria Arquero has been appointed as an assistant professor with a joint appointment in urban and regional planning and architecture. Originally from Spain, she is a licensed architect and urban designer. Her most recent work focuses on the interface between landscape and urbanism, and issues of interpretation and representation. Additional research interests include the use, management, and design of public open space with a strong environmental concern. Arquero has collaborated with Chan Krieger Sieniewicz, an urban design and architecture firm based in Cambridge, and also has an independent practice with projects in Bahrain, Mexico, and Spain. She received a degree in architecture from the ETSA Madrid, a master’s in landscape architecture from the ETH Zurich, and a master’s of landscape architecture in urban design from Harvard University GSD.
McLain Clutter is an architect and writer. He previously taught in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Clutter earned a bachelor’s of architecture, magna cum laude, from Syracuse University; and a M.Ed. from the Yale School of Architecture. At Yale, Clutter was awarded the Victor Everett Meeks fellowship for academic excellence, and he taught as a fellow in graduate and undergraduate studios. Clutter has worked in design offices in New York, Chicago, and New Haven, Conn. His design work has been exhibited in cities in the U.S. and abroad. Clutter has participated in academic conferences and symposia such as the Market of Effects symposium at Yale in 2007, and the 2004 American Association of Geographer’s conference in Philadelphia. His writings have appeared in Grey Room and the Architect’s Newspaper. Clutter’s current research includes a historical project detailing the use of film by the New York City Planning Commission in the late 1960s, and a project developing innovative urban modeling techniques using GIS software. He joins the college as an assistant professor of architecture.
Jen Maigret has been appointed assistant professor of architecture. She earned her undergraduate degree in biology from Hartwick College. She has a master’s of science in ecology and evolutionary biology as well as a master’s of architecture from the University of Michigan. She joined the Washington University-St. Louis faculty in 2006 as one of two inaugural Cynthia Weese teaching fellows and later as an assistant professor. Prior to this, she taught in the undergraduate program at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Her initial education and professional experience within the field of biology informs her current interests in exploring architecture as a component of broader environmental and social ecologies. She has worked professionally as a restoration ecologist and as a designer and project manager with PLY Architecture, where she was extensively involved in a number of nationally and internationally recognized projects including the Mies van der Rohe Plaza (Detroit, Michigan) and the Robbins Elementary School Competition (Trenton, New Jersey).
Martin Murray will join the urban planning faculty as a tenured full professor. He is a sociologist whose current research engages the fields of urban studies and planning, development, historical sociology, and African studies. His research covers diverse geographical areas of the world at different historical periods. After his first book on French colonialism in Southeast Asia, Professor Murray pursued a deep and abiding interest in the political economy of South Africa. In addition to four books and three co-edited volumes, he has produced nearly sixty journal articles and book chapters covering a diversity of topics such as urban South Africa; social, political, and economic issues associated with the post-apartheid transition; class formation in the rural countryside of South Africa; and the historical studies of rural transformation in colonial Indochina. His papers have appeared in a number of influential journals including the Canadian Journal of African Studies, International Sociology, Journal of Southern African Studies, and the Journal of African History. At Taubman College, Professor Murray will contribute significantly to the “Planning in Developing Countries” concentration offered by the Urban and Regional Planning Program. This concentration is currently led by Associate Professor Gavin Shatkin who focuses on South and Southeast Asia. Professor Murray will enable the Urban and Regional Planning Program to expand its developing country course offerings, and affords the program expertise in African urban development policy. He will also teach in the Center for African and African-American Studies (CAAS) in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
Geoffrey Thün joins the faculty as an associate professor of architecture. Previously he was an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. His research ranges from the scale of regional ecologies and infrastructures to the development of high-performance prefabricated building systems. He holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Western Ontario, B. Environmental Studies and a professional B.Arch. from the University of Waterloo, and a master’s of urban design from the University of Toronto. Current research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy / National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NRCan, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).
Kathy Velikov has been appointed assistant professor of architecture. She was an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture and chair of the Canada Green Building Council’s Academic Education Committee. Her work and research focuses on complex ecological, economic, and social structures and processes and built environments that are shaped by advanced materials and technologies. She holds a professional B.Arch. from the University of Waterloo and a master’s of history of art and architecture from the University of Toronto. She joins the faculty as an assistant professor of architecture.
Thün and Velikov are partners in RVTR, founded in 2006, a research-based practice currently located in Toronto, Canada. Velikov and Thün were recipients of a 2008 Young Architects Forum Award for their portfolio of design from the Architecture League of New York, and a 2005 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence for SWAMP House, a prefabricated solar vacation home. The firm was awarded the 2009 Canadian Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture.
For more on Taubman faculty, visit taubmancollege.umich.edu/faculty
