Karen Burns

architecture firms: still capitalist enterprises like any other

Why architecture can’t afford another decade of gender inequality Despite good intentions and pockets of progress, gender inequality remains deeply embedded in the architecture sector’s culture and structures, a RIBA-commissioned study by the Fawcett Society has fou...

www.ribaj.com/intelligence...
Depressing, familiar and the upbeat "Despite good intentions" contradicts the substance of the article which reports off-the-scale bullying, huge percentages of racism, gendered expectations of women as administrators, no maternity provision, etc.

This report is fantastic. Congratulations. Academics drawing on their super skills of research, evidence collection, reasoned argument and collective solidarity.

@kazbar.bsky.social and I are are hosting a round table at the EAHN in Aarhus in June 2026. Please consider submitting to be a part of the discussion!

Women’s Collective Organizing in Architecture: From the Grassroots to the Global, 1960-2020
eahn.org/2025/05/eahn...

New encyclopedia documents women in architecture from 1960–2020 The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture, 1960–2020, a two-volume reference edited by Lori A. Brown and Karen Burns is set to be released in the near future.

Thank you Ilana Amselem for the review.

www.archpaper.com/2025/08/bloo...

Absolutely agree. Congratulations Rory. State government agencies once led policy, legislation and experiments. See Woolloomooloo under John Devenish and the many infill houses and estates produced by the new Ministry of Housing in 1980s Victoria (Devenish again).

Trailblazing women put in spotlight on Sydney walking history tour She Shapes History has launched a Sydney walking tour route to help raise awareness for the women who helped mould the city, but so often get cast aside.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

She Shapes History, a perambulated way of writing women back into the city. Congratulations on a great initiative.

At launch of NSW Pattern Book for Low Rise Housing.
Led by NSW Government Architect Abbie Galvin, Premier & Planning Minister speaking.
Housing designs available to purchase at discount, with fast track approval process.
Great work by 8 invited architects.
Let’s hope this improves housing design & $

Hello everyone, in case you haven't seen the announcements, the massive 10-year project, co-edited by myself and Lori Brown (editors-in-Chief) is now available on-line. Thanks to everyone involved and their dedication to an inclusive global history. Hardback to follow.

American Spring? How nonviolent protest in the US is accelerating Contrary to conventional wisdom, anti-Trump protests this year have dwarfed 2017 in size, and they have been extraordinarily peaceful.

This one is important. Share it widely. "Contrary to conventional wisdom, the size and scale of anti-Trump protests this year have dwarfed those in 2017, and they have been extraordinarily peaceful." wagingnonviolence.org/2025/06/amer...

Utterly grim.

In this article the korean professor says this. So well said.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

At this point, academic conferences scheduled in person in the U.S. are putting their international attendees at risk if they're not either offering a virtual option or multi-site option in other countries. (looking at you, LSA Chicago—I'm due to present there & can't in good faith unless you do)

For Americans who didn’t get the joy of living through the Truss/Kwarteng budget, this is the point where the government starts to call the stock market left-wing and/or woke.

Letter signed by members of the Columbia History Department urging resistance to the Trump Administration's efforts to dictate university policy.

"Should this control be realized, here or elsewhere, it would make any real historical scholarship, teaching, and intellectual community impossible."

Please use the link in the post for a link to the full text shown in this image

My statement on being denied tenure at the Medill School of Journalism drive.google.com/file/d/1BBBI...

Literary theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak named 2025 Holberg Prize Laureate Today, the Holberg Prize—one of the largest international prizes awarded annually to an outstanding researcher in the humanities, social sciences, law or theology—named Indian scholar Gaya...

Spivak awarded the Holberg Prize for outstanding contributions to scholarship.

Trans activist with trans flag face paint. Stonewall protest in nyc on a sunny winters day

Protestors at Stonewall monument in NYC’s. Sun shining on trans flag.

Protestor shouting with sign: disobedience is self-defense. Stonewall park nyc

Trans rally at the Stonewall monument in nyc. Tall black man wearing buttons and smiling to the crowd. Trans flag flying. Jay Walker fighting the good fight.

Beautiful crowd at the Stonewall Monument standing with our trans community. We are brave. Courage is contagious. #resist

Oh dear Thesiswhisperer, please take some self-care time today. Warmest, Karen.

and i thought she was some kind of elf queen ....

New puppy should be helping? I see the puppy imagery....

Great idea. We got a kitten just at the tail end of Covid lockdowns and she is a therapy animal (plus tremendous killer of rodents). I am a complete convert. We all need some furry joy in our day to day lives. There are strange traces of pests disposed of (you do not want to know the details)....

I haven't but I will read it. Thanks.

Martin Gayford, Modernists and Mavericks

Also good on ya!

It's behind a paywall. Do you have a copy?

Australia’s net migration still 82,000 people short of pre-pandemic levels, study finds Country has shortfall over more than five years of pandemic disruption, according to ANU report, contrary to claims of record-high migration

Look how useful those pesky Australian universities can be! Finally some research on recent, longer-term immigration trends. Net immigration is down and international students drive the Australian economy: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

First look at Melbourne’s new public housing towers The new apartment buildings will replace Carlton’s existing 1960s public housing towers, in what will be the first of 44 to be redeveloped under Victoria’s biggest urban renewal project.

It would be good to have a a profession-wide boycott on the public housing tower demolition. Thinking this in response to reading this.
architectureau.com/articles/fir...

See also: 2024.designweek.melbourne/events/publi...