Elizabeth Hermann is a landscape architect, urban designer and cultural historian whose research and teaching focus on cities, their cultural and environmental interconnectivity, and issues pertaining to economically disadvantaged populations, gender, climate change and coastal communities, and ecosystem-based adaptation strategies. For the past 25 years, her work has been centered in South Asia and the coastal cities of the Bay of Bengal region where rapid urbanization, conflict, environmentally driven displacement, and competing land interests are compounded by climate change impacts.
Hermann received her PhD from Harvard, where she focused on urban history and pandemic disease in the pre-modern Muslim world. She has taught at MIT, Harvard, Brown and Washington University in St. Louis. She has been Social Innovator-in-Residence and a visiting scholar in Babson College’s Social Innovation Lab and Entrepreneurship Program; a SPURS Fellow in Urban Studies and Planning at MIT; a senior Fulbright Fellow in Sri Lanka; a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome; and a Professional Fellow in Economic Empowerment with the US State Department. Hermann is founder and co-director of TAASI East, an international independent nonprofit applied research lab working with partners in Sri Lanka and elsewhere on issues of social and environmental justice, community development and climate change impacts. She is currently completing two book projects: Cities of Silt and Sand: The Bay of Bengal and its Narrative of Urbanization, Displacement and Struggle and Widening Waters: Landscape, Identity and Narrative in Sri Lanka.
Courses
Fall 2023 Courses
LDAR 2204-01 - CONSTRUCTED LANDSCAPES STUDIO
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 6
FormatStudio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LDAR 2204-01
CONSTRUCTED LANDSCAPES STUDIO
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
PeriodFall 2023
Credits6
FormatStudio
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: TTH | 1:10 PM - 5:10 PM; T | 9:40 AM - 11:40 AMInstructor(s): Elizabeth HermannLocation(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 200BEnrolled / Capacity: 14Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This core studio stresses middle scale landscape architectural design. A series of studio problems will explore urban public spaces. Students will endeavor to represent contemporary cultural and ecological ideas in land form. There will be an emphasis on constructive strategies, the use of plants in design and methods of representation.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.
Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture
LDAR 226G-01 - LANDSCAPE RESEARCH, THEORY AND DESIGN
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LDAR 226G-01
LANDSCAPE RESEARCH, THEORY AND DESIGN
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
PeriodFall 2023
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: W | 1:10 PM - 4:10 PMInstructor(s): Elizabeth HermannLocation(s): Center for Integrative Technologies, Room 304Enrolled / Capacity: 16Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This seminar will bridge the foundations of landscape theory, research, and design methods in order to frame a process for students to examine contemporary issues in landscape architecture and define research questions that would contribute to creating new knowledge in the field. The course will include guest lectures from practitioners creating a body of research in the field. This seminar initiates the thesis process by asking students to formulate their own proposals for research through design.
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.
Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture
Spring 2024 Courses
LDAR 228G-01 - ADVANCED DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO (THESIS)
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Spring 2024
Credits 6
FormatStudio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LDAR 228G-01
ADVANCED DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO (THESIS)
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
PeriodSpring 2024
Credits6
FormatStudio
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-02-15 to 2024-05-24
Times: TTH | 1:10 PM - 5:10 PM; T | 9:40 AM - 11:40 AMInstructor(s): Elizabeth HermannLocation(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 200Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Students will work within a guided research topic to develop a design investigation with defined objectives, methods, and outcomes. As a 9-credit studio, this course will also require that students design and execute a material, representational, or theoretical experiment tied to a design detail within their investigations. In this thesis studio, students will have periodic formal reviews with an advisory panel, and will use feedback from the panel to produce a book that gives a written and graphic presentation of the research context, process, and findings as well as a final assessment of the outcomes.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.
Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture
