The Spring 2026 Sciame Lecture Series commences Thursday, Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m. with Professor Joyce Hwang's "In Consideration of Neighbors."
SUNY Buffalo Professor Joyce Hwang presents the opening lecture of the Spring 2026 Sciame Lecture Series at The City College of New York’s Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture. “The Elephant in the Room: Locating Animal Lives in Buildings, Cities and Landscapes” is the theme of the Series. Hwang’s lecture, “In consideration of Neighbors,” is Thursday, Feb. 19.
All lectures are in-person, free, on Thursdays at 5:30 pm at the Spitzer School of Architecture (Sciame Auditorium) unless otherwise noted.
This year’s Series takes its title from the expression “the elephant in the room,” which originates in the Russian author Ivan Krylov’s 1814 fable “The Inquisitive Man.” In the story, a visitor to a natural history museum becomes so enthralled with countless “birds and beasts” that he overlooks the largest of them all: a colossal elephant. As the expression gained currency, any reference to real animals gave way to metaphorical ones.
The Sciame Lecture Series takes the idiom literally by addressing the common failure to notice all animals in the built environment. In the lecture series, scholars, designers, thinkers, and activists cast light on imagining, designing, and sharing buildings, cities, and landscapes with other species.
For live captioning, ASL interpretation, or access requests, please contact ssadean@ccny.cuny.edu .
Find more info and RSVP here.
Feb 19
In Consideration of Neighbors
Joyce Hwang
Feb 26
Ghosts in the Glass: An Architectural Hauntology of Bird-Window Collisions in the U.S.
Dr. Richard Fadok
March 12
Animating Construction: Animal Labor and Urban Architectures of Violence
Dr. Yamini Narayanan
March 19
Natural by Design: Creating Spaces for Conservation, Choice, and Connection
Megan Nielsen Hegstad
April 16
A Stone Fallen From the Moon...or Elsewhere
Dr. Martin Cobas
April 23
Paved Paradise: The Impacts of Roads and the Rise of Transportation Ecology
Ben Goldfarb
This Sciame lecture series is made possible by the Spitzer Architecture Fund and the generous support of Frank Sciame ’74, CEO of Sciame Construction.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers, and society. At City College, more than 16,500 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity, and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together,” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College's mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic, and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Thea Klapwald
e:
tklapwald@ccny.cuny.edu