Visiting Fulbright Scholar 2011-12
Mirjana Petrik is an architect from Czech Republic. She received her Master Degree in Architecture and Urbanism at Czech Technical University in Prague in 2004. After working as an architect for several years, she continued her studies as PhD student at.
During six years of professional practice, her projects included several playgrounds in the center of Prague. Designing urban spaces for and from the perspective of the youngest members of our communities became her academic and professional focus.
In her PhD studies at the Faculty of Architecture, CTU in Prague she focuses on participation of children in urban planning. She is interested in examining methods to include children from 3 to 6 years of age in design and planning. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to deepen her knowledge at the CYE Center.
Postdoctoral scholar 2008-10
Laura DeLuca received her Ph.D. in anthropology in 2002. Before coming to CU-Boulder she worked at the University of Vermont and Princeton University. Since 2003 she has been conducting research on Sudanese refugee youth in Colorado. In 2005, she was an invited participant in the Rift Valley Institute’s Sudan Field School held in Rumbek (South Sudan). Dr. DeLuca is currently writing a book about the Lost Girls of Sudan; she is also serving as an anthropological consultant for a documentary film about these female refugee youth. Dr. DeLuca’s research project has received support from the Colorado Humanities, CU-Boulder Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) and the School for Advanced Research (SAR) in Santa Fe. On the CU campus she has taught for Smith Hall International Program (SHIP) and the Baker Environmental Program.
Before working with Sudanese refugees, Laura DeLuca worked in Kenya and Tanzania on conservation and development issues. In 2000-2001 she studied conservation conflicts in the Serengeti and ecotourism programs developed in conjunction with Maasai youth. In Kenya, she has worked as a project director for Operation Crossroads Africa (OCA) in Watamu (near Malindi) and in Lodwar (Turkana district). She also was a Peace Corps Teacher in Kisumu Kenya.
Visiting scholar 2007-08
M. Oğuz Sinemillioğlu was a visiting scholar at CYE in 2007-08. He received his BSc and MSc in urban planning from Istanbul Technical University, after which he completed his Ph.D. in regional planning and sustainable development at the same university in 1998.
Previously, he worked as a city planner in the Municipality of Gaziantep and in the South-eastern Anatolia Regional Development Project involving internationally cooperation on projects for the Ministry of Environment.
His academic career started at Dicle University (Diyarbakir, Turkey), where he holds an appointment as assistanmt professor in theDepartment of Architecture.
Past research focused on migration, urban land use planning, regional development, andsustainability in urban green areas. His latest work has dealt with increasing green areas in central urban areas and planning for more public space for children in Diyarbakır. Email: drmos@dicle.edu.tr
Visiting Professor 2007-08
Kumi Tashiro from the Department of Architecture at Miyagi University, Japan, was a visiting professor at CYE in 2007-08. During this time, she traveled to present her work in New Mexico, Nevada, and Hong Kong. She also made severallocal presentations of her research on participatory design with children, drawing on her work in Japan and the U.S. on schools, community gardens and urban design. She joined an ongoing collaboration between CYE and Casey MS that brings together Environmental Design students and middle schoolers around issues of design education and worked for six weeks in an after-school program with Whittier Elementary School.