
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu
February 14, 2006
Gated Communities Focus of UNM Lecture
J.B. Jackson lecture features CUNY professor
The University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning presents the sixth annual J.B. Jackson Lecture featuring Setha Low, professor of environmental psychology and anthropology at the City University of New York, on Friday, Feb. 24, at 4:30 p.m., in Northrop Hall, Room 122 on the UNM campus.
Low's lecture, “The Architecture of Fear: Gated Communities in America ,” will explore the reasons people move into gated communities and how satisfied are they with the lives they lead there.
“A gated community reinforces the norms of middle-class lifestyle,” writes Low, “in a historical period in which everyday events and news media exacerbate fears of violence and terrorism.”
“Studying a topic that elicits such strong feelings, both pro and con, Low took the novel step of actually interviewing residents of gated communities in depth,” said Chris Wilson, J.B. Jackson Professor of Cultural Landscape Studies in the UNM School of Architecture and Planning.
Low's recent book, “Behind the Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America,” from which her talk is drawn, is based on eight years of ethnographic research in San Antonio, New York City and Long Island.
Through vivid profiles of individuals and families, she uncovers the hopes and fears that have propelled so many people into gated neighborhoods that they have become the fastest growing form of housing in the United States in the past 20 years.
“Setha Low is the leading anthropologist in the United States today studying how people create their communities and public spaces, and how, in turn, they are shaped by those spaces and buildings,” Wilson said.
President-elect of the prestigious American Anthropological Association, Low is author of numerous books, including, “On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture.”
John Brinckerhoff Jackson, for whom the lecture is named, died in 1996. He is credited with creating the field of landscape studies. The annual J.B. Jackson Lecture honors a person who has made a significant contribution to cultural landscape studies.
This event is free and open to the public.
The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation.
www.unm.edu