Faculty Advisors

Damian White – NCSS Coordinator

(dwhite01@risd.edu)

Damian White is a sociologist and political theorist with interests in urban and environmental sociology, historical sociology, political sociology, urban political ecology, critical theory, science and technology studies, the sociology of the future and the sociology of design and architecture. He has a BA (First Class) in Political Science and American Studies from the University of Keele, an MSc in Political Sociology and Political Theory from Birkbeck College, University of London and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Essex. He is the winner of the Edna Schaffer Humanist Award (2008) and the John.R.Frazier Award (2012) for excellence in teaching.

White is presently head of the department of History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences and coordinator of the pilot program in Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies at RISD.

Peter Dean – NCSS Seminar Professor

(pdean@risd.edu)

Peter was trained as an architect in the Department of Architecture and Design at RISD, and as a furniture designer/maker at RISD under Tage Frid, graduating in 1977. For the last 16 years, Peter has worked as a Senior Critic in the Department of Furniture Design. He has taught the Sophomore Studio Methods, the Senior Degree Project and Sustainability: Green Materials and Green Behavior research elective in Furniture Design. This class explores the designer’s responsibility to this important issue. Working with a few colleagues, Peter has developed the concentration entitled Nature/Culture/Sustainability. Peter designed and will teach the Core Course for this concentration. Peter has also helped to develop the R. Buckminster Fuller Biennial Design Science Symposium in collaboration with the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab at RISD and the Synergetics Collaborative.

The NCSS Advisory Board

Charlie Cannon, ID (ccannon@risd.edu)

Scheri Fultineer, Landscape Architecture (sfultine@risd.edu)

Elizabeth Dean Hermann, Landscape Architecture (ehermann@risd.edu)

Carol Lasch, Foundation Studies (clasch@risd.edu)

Nicole Merola, LAS (nmerola@risd.edu)

Ijlal Muzaffar, HAVC (imuzaffa@risd.edu)

Neal Overstrom, Nature Lab (noverstr@risd.edu)

Mark Pompeila, Materials Library (mpompeli@risd.edu)

Anne Tate, Architecture (atate@risd.edu)

Liliane Wong, InTAR (lwong@risd.edu)

Peter Yeadon, InTAR (pyeadon@risd.edu)