Thandi Loewenson honored with 2024 Wheelwright Prize for examining racial capitalism and Earth's resources

2024-06-27T10:00:00-04:00

The Harvard Graduate School of Design just announced this year's winning proposal for the coveted Wheelwright Prize, featuring an examination of colonial systems and racial capitalism from the UK-based Zimbabwe-born researcher Thandi Loewenson.

The $100,000 award is provided annually with the chance to give a lecture at the GSD and be published in one of five different school publications. Loewenson will have the chance to uncover "how we get free" through a series of what she calls "Black Papers," breaking down the "entanglement of Earth and Air" in the endemic landscape of seven different countries. The prize money supports her study of "Outer Space," which includes examining aerial land surveying techniques as well as the mining of precious metals used in smartphone devices and unwittingly underwriting a system of "digital dispossession" worldwide.

Loewenson, currently a senior tutor at the Royal College of Art, also holds a PhD from the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture.

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Thandi Loewenson honored with 2024 Wheelwright Prize for examining racial capitalism and Earth's resources