Writing Multiculturalism into Architecture Curricula

In the spring of 1991 I taught a new writing course with another African American faculty member, Ken Simmons, in the Department of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley. The purpose of the course was to write about African American, Asian American, Latino, and Native American architects and artists and their works. We created this course at the urgent request of African American architecture students who were angered by the omission of architects of color in our curriculum. This paper discusses the academic benefits and difficulties of teaching a multicultural writing course in an architecture school.