In connection with the exhibition Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture, this online panel discussion invites historians of design and disability to share a story—historical or contemporary—where disability and feminist frameworks come together to shape the making of a building, space, or mode of architectural representation.

Disability justice activist Mia Mingus describes collective access as a framework that centers interdependence and connects disability justice to other movements, including feminism and queer/trans liberation. To this end, collective access provides a useful lens for understanding architect Phyllis Birkby’s intersectional interests and interventions in designing spaces for women, queer people, people with disabilities, and the elderly. In addition to leading the “fantasy environment” project, in which she encouraged women to draw their ideal homes and spaces, Birkby was responsible for many projects that centered the needs and desires of people with disabilities. In 1970, for instance, while working at the firm Davis, Brody and Associates (now Davis Brody Bond), Birkby designed an accessible master plan and new library for Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus in line with their pioneering program for people with disabilities. In her own private practice, Birkby was invested in creating spaces of care—homes, medical facilities, and community centers—designed for people with a range of accessibility needs, alternative family structures, and at various stages of life. Her work in these contexts also inspired her to travel to Denmark and Germany in the 1980s, where she researched new approaches to collective, accessible housing for elderly communities.

In conversation with Mingus’ definition of collective access, and inspired by Birkby’s multi-faceted design career, this event will feature under-told histories of intersectional approaches to design. The event will begin with an introduction from the curators of Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture, Stephen Vider and M.C. Overholt, followed by a series of presentations from the event panelists Aimi Hamraie, David Serlin, and May Khalife and a brief Q&A session.

Speakers:
Aimi Hamraie, Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society, Vanderbilt University
May Khalife, Assistant Professor, Architecture and Interior Design, Miami University
David Serlin, Professor of Communication, University of California, San Diego

Moderators:
Stephen Vider, Co-Curator of Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture; Associate Professor of History and Program Co-Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Bryn Mawr College
M.C. Overholt, Co-Curator of Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture; PhD Candidate in the History and Theory of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Weitzman School of Design; Visiting Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute, School of Architecture

American Sign Language interpretation will be provided. This event will be realtime captioned by a live captioner (CART).​​​​​​​

About the Speakers:
Aimi Hamraie is director of the Critical Design Lab, a public member of the U.S. Access Board, and Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University

May Khalife is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Interior Design at Miami University, Oxford, OH. She previously taught at the University of Cincinnati, OH, and UNC Charlotte, NC. Her research and teaching trajectories engage subjects related to urban studies and activism in the historiography of architectural modernism and historic preservation. In her recently published article “Long Island University’s Library Learning Center: Noel Phyllis Birkby’s Anti-Ableist Activism in the 1970s” (2024), May Khalife examines issues at the intersection of disability justice and radical feminism and their impact on a major redevelopment project in Brooklyn led by a pioneering female modernist architect. The article demystifies discriminatory social constructs of the human body through a close reading of Birkby’s design and redesign of a vibrant urban campus.

David Serlin is Professor of Communication and Science Studies at UC San Diego, where he teaches courses on historical and cultural approaches to disability, design, and sensory experience. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, which awarded him the 2021 Rome Prize in Architecture. His most recent book is Window Shopping with Helen Keller: Architecture and Disability in Modern Culture (University of Chicago Press, 2025).

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