As visiting critic in the Department of Architecture, Emma Silverblatt leads hands-on courses centering community-engaged design/build methodologies in order to establish empathetic agencies for architecture in underserved sectors, such as public spaces and affordable housing.

Building on local partnerships each semester, Silverblatt’s ongoing collaborators include Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, the Village of Trumansburg and the Coddington Road Community Center, among others. Her pedagogy introduces students to participatory operations within the field, while supporting coursework that produces tangible, built improvements for community partners. Deriving research from such projects poses a unique set of multi-faceted and wide-ranging challenges, as each is crucially dependent on local conditions and relationships.

As a result, scholarship in this realm may be missing opportunities to establish reflective connections between projects and across universities and contexts. Silverblatt believes further analysis of such projects may reveal patterns that could reframe perceived criteria for success and increase accessibility. She is also interested in a comparative study of the formation and reporting of community-build projects more generally, and the potential pressures of the academic sphere that may impact this process. Through her Engaged Faculty Fellowship, Silverblatt seeks to further study and contribute to collaborative modes and networks of scholarship capable of more effectively documenting and sharing engaged and design/build work.