HOMInG’s seminar 44_20 will be with prof. Tasoulla Hadjiyanni (University of Minnesota), the author of The Right to Home: Exploring how space, culture and identity intersect with disparities, Palgrave, 2019.
See the seminar’s outline below.
All participants welcome – please register in advance (bernardo.armanni@unitn.it)

Toward Culturally Enriched Communities – The Right to Home.  
Abstract:  Design elements of home interiors have received little attention in efforts to eliminate health, income, and educational disparities and create communities in which everyone can thrive. As the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on communities of color and the global call for racial justice demonstrated, securing the future is inextricably linked to identifying and addressing systems of exclusion. The Right to Home uses stories from Hmong, Somali, Mexicans, Ojibwe, and African Americans in Minnesota to explore how the spatial characteristics of homes can support or suppress peoples’ attempts to create meaning in their lives, which can impact well-being and delineate the production of disparities. Through exposing unexpected uses and unintended consequences, such as how kitchen layouts restrict cooking, the size of social areas limits gatherings with friends, walls construct connections to spirits, windows nourish the soul, and dining tables instill aspirations, the discussion expands understanding of how everyday uses of domestic spaces intersect with income, race, gender, citizenship, ability, religion, and ethnicity to posit that social inequalities are partly spatially constructed and are therefore, malleable. The book’s purpose is to inspire a sense of wonder about the human capacity to create meaning and rally home mediators (scholars, educators, design practitioners, policy makes, and advocates) to work toward Culturally Enriched Communities, healthy and connected communities in which everyone can thrive.