Dr. Kathryn Anthony

Biography

Professor Anthony teaches, conducts research, and writes about how spaces and places affect people. Her expertise focuses on such topics as social and behavioral factors in design, gender and race in contemporary architecture, and entrepreneurship in design. She has also developed a new seminar on architecture, cinema, environment, and behavior.

Her research has spawned award-winning books, Design Juries on Trial: The Renaissance of the Design Studio and Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession.

She recently co-authored Shedding New Light on Art Museum Additions: Front Stage and Back Stage Experiences, with Altaf Engineer.

One of Professor Anthony’s latest books is Defined by Design: The Surprising Power of Hidden Gender, Age, and Body Bias in Everyday Products and Places. It demonstrates how design shapes our lives in ways most of us would never imagine–affecting our comfort, our self-image, and even our health.

Her publications have sparked media attention in CBS Sunday Morning television, NPR, CNN, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Time, The Guardian, The New York Times, and elsewhere.

Professor Anthony has lectured widely throughout the US and abroad. Recent university speaking engagements include Carnegie Melon, Cornell, Notre Dame, Princeton, and Tuskegee.

She is the recipient of the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award from Chicago Women in Architecture. The award recognizes her 40-year career as educator, researcher and author who amplified the conversation about how spaces and places affect people—chiefly addressing issues of gender and diversity in design. She recently received the 2021 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, the highest award bestowed upon an architectural educator.