Recent Projects

Dr. Person is an architectural geographer and environmental designer whose research and teaching explores environment-society relationships

Click here for Dr. Person’s full C.V.

Exhibitions and Archival Work

Outré West: The American School of Architecture from Oklahoma to California [ EXHIBITION ]

“Outré West” is a scholarly design exhibition on view at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, Oklahoma’s premiere contemporary art museum, from August 2023 – January 2024. Co-organized by Architecture faculty Angela Person, Stephanie Pilat, and Marco Piscitelli, Outré West is the first-ever exhibition to consider the broader influence of Goff’s and Greene’s teaching and mentoring on California’s built environment.

Capital Brutalism  [ EXHIBITION ]

Person co-curated Capital Brutalism, an exhibition on view at the National Building Museum in 2024-2025. It explores the history, current state, and future of seven polarizing buildings and the WMATA Metro system in Washington, D.C. The exhibition uses archival documents, drawings, construction photographs, architectural models, and contemporary photographs to provide context and shed light on the buildings’ stories. Selected buildings are reimagined by leading architecture firms, including Studio Gang, Brooks + Scarpa, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Gensler, and BLDUS, along with students from the School of Architecture at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 

Brutal DC [ EXHIBITION ]

Brutal DC is a scholarly design exhibition comprising archival documents, recent re-imaginings, and fine art photography that considers the historical underpinnings, current state, and future possibilities of key Brutalist buildings in Washington, DC. Co-curated by Angela Person and Ty Cole, this exhibition was on view at the Southern Utah Museum of Art from October 14, 2023 – March 2, 2024. It has been published in Architects’ Newspaper, Domus, Designboom, and more. View the Press Kit. 

The American School of Architecture (link.ou.edu/americanschool)

The American School refers to the school of design and practice that developed under the guidance of Bruce Goff, Herb Greene and others at the University of Oklahoma in the 1950s and ’60s. The architects of the American School have long been characterized as renegades, iconoclasts and apostates. Since 2016, Person has co-organized the American School project, supporting research, coordination, and funding of exhibitions and scholarly activities, including:

Book Projects, Peer-Reviewed

  • 2020. Micieli-Voutsinas, J. and A. Person, eds. Affective Architectures: More-Than-Representational Geographies of Heritage. Published as part of Routledge’s “Critical Studies in Heritage, Emotion and Affect” series. (Link)
  • 2020. Pilat, S., L. Guido, and A. Person, eds. Renegades: Bruce Goff and the American School of Architecture. Norman, OK: The University of Oklahoma Press. (Link) *Winner of the 2021 Oklahoma Book Award for Design, Finalist for the College Arts Association’s Barr Jr. Book Award, Honorable Mention, Society of Architectural Historians 2022 Exhibition Catalogue Award
  • 2014. Person, A. and J. Cooper. The Care and Keeping of Cultural Institutions: A best practice guidebook for museum facility management. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. (Link)
  • * Awarded the 2015 IFMA “Distinguished Author Award”

Book Chapters, Peer-Reviewed

  • 2023. Pilat, S. and A. Person, “Radical Empathy in the Teaching of Bruce Goff and the American School Architects,” in Histories of Architecture Education in the United States, P. Laurence, ed., Routledge.
  • 2022. Pilat, S., A. Person, and H. Butzer, “Bruce Goff and the American School of Architecture,” in Radical Pedagogies, B. Colomina, I. Galan, E. Kotsioris, A.M. Meister, eds. MIT Press.
  • 2020. Micieli-Voutsinas, J. and A. Person, “Introduction,” in Affective Architectures: More-Than-Representational Geographies of Heritage. Published as part of Routledge’s “Critical Studies in Heritage, Emotion and Affect” series.
  • 2020. Pilat, S., H. Butzer, and A. Person. “Introduction,” in Renegades: Bruce Goff and the American School of Architecture. Norman, OK: The University of Oklahoma Press.
  • 2020. Butzer, H., A. Person, and C. Dagg. “The Legacy and Lessons of the American School,” in Renegades: Bruce Goff and the American School of Architecture. Norman, OK: The University of Oklahoma Press.

Journal Articles, Peer-Reviewed

  • 2024. Foster, B., A. Person, R. Peppler. “Expressions of Place Attachment and Environmental Justice Near the Tar Creek Superfund Site,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, 101(4), 384-398, Winter 2023-2024.
  • 2023. Wiley, A., A. Marshall, A. Person (corresponding author) & R. Peppler. “Collegial or Contentious? Reflections on an Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion about an Oil Pipeline,” Studies in Social Justice. https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v17i3.4219.
  • 2023. Motamedi, S., A. Person. “Evaluating Emotional and Social Interactions in Museum Liminal Spaces: A Case Study of the National Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy Defense of Tehran, Iran,” Social Science Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13303.
  • 2022. Pilat, S., A. Person. “Inclusive Design Studios: Rethinking the Instructor’s Role.” Published in ENQ. https://doi.org/10.17831/enqarcc.v19i1.1127.
  • 2022. Richards, D. and A. Person. (Equal authorship.) “Equity & Dignity by Design: Co-Creating Guidelines for Planned Parenthood Affiliate Health Centers.” Journal of Architectural Education. Published Feb. 28, 2022 online, open-access. (Link) *Awarded the 2023 Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) Award for Design
  • 2021. Johnson, V., K. Klockow-McClain, R. Peppler, A. Person. “Tornado Climatologyand Risk Perception in Central Oklahoma.” Weather, Climate and Society. Published May 6, 2021 online. (Link)
  • 2021. Wade, M., R. Peppler, A. Person. “Community Education and Perceptions of WaterReuse: A Case Study in Norman, Oklahoma.” Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. Published February 19, 2021 online. (Link)
  • 2020. Merkel, S., A. Person (corresponding author), R. Peppler, S. Melcher. “Climate Change Communication: Examining the Social and Cognitive Barriers to Productive Environmental Communication.” Social Science Quarterly. Published July 15, 2020 online. (Link)
  • 2019. Person, A. “Reading Pre-Statehood Muskogee: Racial-Political Discourse in American Indian, African American, and White Newspapers, 1905-1907.” Chronicles of Oklahoma, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Oklahoma Historical Society (97) 3. (Link)
  • 2019. Person, A. “Re-Animating the Built; Decentering the Human,” in the Telesis special issue, “Design Against,” (1) 1, pp. 34-37. (Link)
  • 2016. Person, A. “Interview with Hans Butzer and Torrey Butzer, Designers of the Oklahoma City National Memorial,” in Social Science Quarterly (97) 1, pp. 86-95. (Link)

Mentored Research

Person also leads the award-winning Environmental Sustainability Working Group (ESWG) with Dr. Randy Peppler, Associate Director of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies. The ESWG has received funding from the Oklahoma-NASA Workforce Development program, the OU Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability and the OU Office of Undergraduate Research. Recent ESWG research has looked at communicating climate change risk, organizing productive environmental discussions across cultural and disciplinary boundaries, and understanding risk perceptions of tornadoes. Learn more about this group’s research here. Examples of award-winning projects include:

  • “Riverkeeper Groups as Enforcement Agents for Environmental Policy” – Adeline Miller, Undergraduate Student * Awarded an Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Fellowship ** Awarded a Provost’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Fellowship
  • “Historical Analysis of Oklahoma City Parks and Implications for Future Planning” – Kathlyn Dannewald, Undergraduate Student *Awarded a Provost’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Fellowship
  • “Exploring Water and Inequality in Oklahoma,” Julie Bahr, Undergraduate Student *Awarded an Honorable Mention for OU Undergraduate Research Day
  • “Environmental Justice in Northeastern Oklahoma” – Brooke Foster, Undergraduate Student  *Awarded the OU Phi Kappa Phi Undergraduate Research Day Grand Prize
  • “Perceptions of Reclaimed Stormwater” – Madeline Wade, Undergraduate Student *Awarded Second Place, Southwest Division of the Association of American Geographers’ Student Paper Competition
  • “Environmental Justice in Northeastern Oklahoma” – Brooke Foster, Undergraduate Student * Awarded First Place in the Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference, University of Kentucky | Awarded an Honors Research Assistant Program Grant
  • “Climate Change Communication: Examining the Social and Cognitive Barriers to Effective Climate Change Communication” – Sonia Merkel, Senior Capstone *Awarded an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Grant

Funding

Selected funding.

  • 2024 “Outré West: The American School of Architecture from Oklahoma to California,” University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research & Partnerships (co-PI with Stephanie Pilat), $35,500. (Link)
  • 2023 “Using Colormaps to Communicate Risk: An Inventory and Review of NWS Products and Visualizations with Options for the Future,” U.S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (co-PI with Joe Ripberger and Makenzie Krocak), $229,836. (Link)
  • 2023 Data Institute for Societal Challenges Seed Grant, in support of the project “Developing a Novel Methodology in R for Mapping Biometric Data onto Architectural Floorplans” (co-PI Christopher Black), $7,500.
  • 2022 Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Fellowship Mentor, sponsored by the OU Provost’s Office, in support of the project “Historical Analysis of Oklahoma City Parks and Implications for Future Planning,” with undergraduate researcher Kathlyn Dannewald, $4,250.
  • 2021 Social Sciences, Humanities & Arts Seed Grant Program Award, sponsored by the OU Vice President for Research & Partnerships, in support of the project “Spatial Storytelling with Emergent Technologies: Muscogee (Creek) Tribal Town Futurity.” Sub-investigator (with Laura Harjo, PI, and Shawn Schaefer, sub-investigator). $19,991.55.
  • 2020 National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works Grant, “The American School of Architecture: An Interactive Database,” Co-PI, $20,000.