Paola Sanguinetti, technology expert and architect, to lead The Design School at ASU

July 21, 2021

Paola Sanguinetti, noted expert in technology, sustainability and architecture, has been named the new director of The Design School in Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

Sanguinetti comes to ASU from the University of Kansas, where she was a professor of architecture as well as president-elect of the faculty senate, director of the robotics lab and former chair of the department of architecture. She has two decades of teaching experience in architecture and computational design and has been recognized for her excellence in teaching, including being named as one of DesignIntelligence’s most admired educators in 2014.

“Dr. Sanguinetti is a seasoned academic leader, a fantastic scholar, a celebrated teacher and an innovator,” said Herberger Institute Dean Steven J. Tepper. “She will be a great fit at ASU, the New American University, embracing our charter of inclusion and our commitment to use-inspired research and taking responsibility for the outcomes of our communities.”

Sanguinetti became interested in architecture as a child growing up in Venezuela.

“I have wanted to be an architect since I was a young person,” she said. “I understood the power that design can have to contribute to the well-being of others.”

Sanguinetti says that her passion is mentoring students and supporting the participation of underrepresented groups in her area of expertise: building simulation, robotic fabrication and virtual reality in architecture. She has an active BIM (building information modeling) consulting practice and has worked professionally in New York and London, gaining experience with several internationally distinguished architectural practices, including those of Emilio Ambasz and Zaha Hadid.

She was drawn to Arizona, she says, because “I’ve been reading about ASU for 10 years. I am compelled by the charge of inclusion and creating access. It’s difficult to achieve, but it’s important.”

Sanguinetti holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Kansas; a Master of Science in advanced architectural design from Columbia University, and a PhD in architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology, specializing in high-performance buildings and design computation. Her research has examined building systems, additive manufacturing, robotics and design computing in the areas of sustainability, net-zero energy, affordability and waste. She has also explored Latin American architecture as well as cinematic techniques for architecture and design. Her current research focuses on energy-efficient 3D-printed construction.

“Design is a way of seeing the world as possibilities,” Sanguinetti said. “It is asking, ‘What if?’ I am excited to be part of an institution that values design.”

Top photo by Tim Trumble

Deborah Sussman

Communications and media specialist, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

480-965-0478 deborah.sussman@asu.edu

Critical race theory scholar joins ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre

The ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre welcomes Joyce McCall as assistant professor of music learning and teaching.McCall is one of the few scholars whose music education research focuses on race and racism through critical race theory and double consciousness theory, as well as culturally relevant pedagogy. “This is my dream job in a sense, because this is an opportunity to do the work tha...

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Critical race theory scholar joins ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre

July 21, 2021

The ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre welcomes Joyce McCall as assistant professor of music learning and teaching.

McCall is one of the few scholars whose music education research focuses on race and racism through critical race theory and double consciousness theory, as well as culturally relevant pedagogy. Joyce McCall Download Full Image

“This is my dream job in a sense, because this is an opportunity to do the work that I do and also be able to do it in a place that provides me with a space where I can thrive,” McCall said. “I have yet to find that any place else, and I believe that Arizona State University and the School of Music, Dance and Theatre might be it.”

McCall’s research centers on how race, class and culture impact educational equity in music education. She said she also examines how certain pedagogies such as culturally relevant teaching influence possibilities to engage minoritized racial populations in the music classroom and beyond.

“We are delighted to have attracted Dr. McCall to the ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre,” said Heather Landes, director of the school. “Dr. McCall brings expertise and research interests that are critical to our path forward as a school focused on access, inclusion and excellence. We look forward to welcoming Dr. McCall, who earned her PhD in music education from ASU in 2015, back to our community as a faculty member.”

McCall said she is excited to work with top-notch scholars in the field of music education and for the opportunity to work with the people who contributed to her success.

“I have been abreast of all the things that the program has been doing while I was there, and even after, and have always wanted to be part of a space where folks were not only thinking about progressive work but are finding ways to do it, and then actually doing it,” McCall said.

After earning her undergraduate degree in music performance, McCall said she did not see herself as a teacher and did not want to teach. By the time she earned her master’s degree, she realized that everything she was pursuing suggested that she needed to teach. She chose Houston, Texas, to begin her teaching career.

“During my time teaching in a predominantly Latina/Latino school district in Houston, I saw the stark disparities between where I taught and 15 minutes down the road to a totally different school district that was predominantly white,” McCall said. “With their resources, access and reputation, it was like easy street, whereas our kids had to negotiate some incredibly rough terrain.”

McCall said after realizing that in school and in society, nothing much had changed since she was in school as a child in Mobile, Alabama, she decided she needed to pursue her doctoral degree in music education.

McCall was the only African American in her doctoral program and, to her knowledge, is still the only one to finish with a doctorate in music education at ASU.

While pursuing all three degrees, McCall actively served in the military. She entered basic combat training in the U. S. Army at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, after high school and served in the National Guard. McCall was awarded the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. She also proudly served as a clarinetist and saxophonist in the United States Army Bands from 1999 to 2013.

Additionally, McCall has a background in jazz and teaching jazz methods and plans to expose students to the opportunity of using jazz as a means to engage musically and critically. ASU is one of three programs that offers jazz methods to music education students, along with Indiana University and Northern Illinois University.

She is actively engaged in partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities and has presented at the American Educators Research Association, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the National Association for Music Education and the Society for Music Teacher Education. Her publications include several journals, and her latest book chapter, “Speak No Evil: Talking Race as an African American in Music Education,” has served as a critical tool in music education toward empowering racially minoritized scholars and inspiring anti-racist work.

McCall most recently served on the music education faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“I feel I can offer a different perspective, and an informed perspective, based on experience and expertise that will hopefully provide ASU students with the tools needed to provide K–12 students the most optimal learning experiences possible,” McCall said. “Our music teacher education programs must situate themselves to provide current and future teachers reliable tools beyond teaching the music that will assist them in being responsive to their students and anticipatory to the sort of shifts and challenges that sit on the horizon in our society and education. Historically, as a collective, we were never winning on that front. It is imperative that we change that outcome.”