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Javier Arbona-Homar

Javier Arbona-Homar

Richmond, CA, US

 
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About 

I'm a Puerto Rican geographer with a background in architecture and urban design. You might know me if you've been on this website long enough (part of the old guard Archinect crew — and the former chief editor).

I write about a variety of interdisciplinary topics, ranging from spatial politics to material studies. My work focuses on landscapes of violence, urban (in)security, and spatial memory. As part of this line of inquiry, I enjoy situating my work in conversation with artists, curators, and publics that share these agendas, and have published in exhibition catalogs and limited distribution art texts, including the Perez Art Museum Miami, Wolfman General Interest Books and Gallery, the UCSD University Art Gallery, Columbia's Studio X, and the Istanbul Design Biennial. 

Relatedly, I co-founded DM with Bryan Finoki and Nick Sowers as a practice in experimental mobilities, displacements, and conversations. This sprawling practice exists through backchannel chats, live performances, public walks, and ongoing writing. With Bryan, I'm currently working on texts that explore the environmental and atmospheric dimensions of policing and police technologies. In 2020, I'm informally organizing some unguided tours at sites of explosivity (subscribe through substack for updates). 

I hold a dual appointment as Assistant Professor in Design and American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Academic writing has appeared in Landscape Journal, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, and edited collections. 

In addition to writing, I have participated or collaborated in numerous lectures, workshops, walking tours, and conferences. Together with collaborators, I have done work for the likes of the Headlands Center for the Arts, Othercinema, Beta-Local, and more. My sole- or co-authored design writing has appeared in the Harvard Design Magazine, Domus, Volume, Places, Architectural Design, and the AA's Fulcrum.

I have specialized training conducting oral histories, and I have experience with translation (Spanish / English).

*profile photo by Tom Maiorana

Elsewhere:

Javier's Design Blog on Archinect:

BEZOAR : A mass found trapped in an architectural digestive system.

A bezoar is a mass of disparate pieces and materials. For this blog, you will find something somewhere between tweet-length posts and tumblelogging; inchoate thoughts; provocations and assorted scraps that don't fit anyplace else; criticisms of a political and geographic variety; ecoaffective ramblings; spatial imaginaries that don't conform. On Twitter: @AlJavieera; 1/3rd of @Demilit; bookmarked content: @AJFavorite.

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Javier's School Blog on Archinect:

UC Berkeley Geography : This is Javier's old retired blog.

Javier's notebook.

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Javier's Featured Articles on Archinect

Best of '05 » Javier Arbona
 

A New Village at MIT, Thu, May 6 '04

A New Village at MIT
 

Primitivo Suarez, Tue, Apr 6 '04

Primitivo Suarez has a BA in architecture from SCI-Arc (1998), and an MFA from UCLA (2000). He has demonstrated his dual training in all of his subsequent exhibitions, where he has evaporated distinctions between architecture and sculpture to create an exciting hybrid realm. Since 2000 he has ...

Primitivo Suarez
 

Employment 

University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, US, Assistant Professor

Jun 2016 - current
 

University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, US, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow

Jun 2014 - Jun 2016
 

Awards 

Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship, UC Davis American Studies, Award

The University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program was established in 1984 to encourage outstanding women and minority Ph.D. recipients to pursue academic careers at the University of California. The current program offers postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development and faculty mentoring to outstanding scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity at UC.

2014
 
2011
 

Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow, Grant

Through its Fellowship Programs, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

2011
 

Areas of Specialization 

Skills