The University of Sydney has named Deborah Ascher Barnstone as its next Head of the School of Architecture, Design, and Planning.

Barnstone comes to the position with extensive past teaching experience in Australia, the EU, and the United States, including positions at Washington State University, Ball State University, the University of Technology Sydney, and the Boston Architectural Center. She holds a Ph.D. from TU Delft in addition to her Master’s degree from the Columbia GSAPP, and worked as a professional dance choreographer before entering the architectural field, where she is also a noted historian.

Her research has primarily focused on the development of modernism through the lens of Dutch and German artists and architects. Titles include 2005’s The Transparent State: Architecture and Politics in Postwar Germany (Routledge); 2016’s Another Modernity: Cultural Debates in Weimar era Breslau (University of Michigan); and the 2019 book The Break with the Past: German Avantgarde Architects 1910-1925, also from Routledge.

The University says her new role will, "bring new perspectives to the School’s established research in histories of the built environment and architecture." Barnstone has also been credited with contributing to sustainable design in the country and in Germany, including experimentations with bushfire-resistant architecture on the South Coast of New South Wales.

“There were several things that attracted me to the Sydney School of Architecture, Design, and Planning; the excellent quality of the university and its programs; the storied history as the first university and first architecture program in Australia; and the amazing colleagues in the School,” Barnstone said at the announcement. “I am excited to become part of the first-class intellectual environment at Sydney; to become part of a university that values robust scholarly debates and original and creative thinking; and aspires to be world-class in every endeavor.”

Barnstone will take over the post beginning on July 31st of this year.