Dana Cuff

Dana Cuff is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Urban Planning, and Director of cityLAB at UCLA. Since receiving her Ph.D. in Architecture from Berkeley, Cuff has published and lectured widely about design and inclusion, the architectural profession, and affordable housing. She is a prolific writer, including books such as The Provisional City about postwar housing in Los Angeles, a co-authored text called Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City, and most recently, Architectures of Spatial Justice (2023). Cuff has had greater public impact than most academics through the co-authoring of successful state housing legislation grounded in cityLAB’s research (AB 2299, 2016; AB2295, 2022). For over a decade, Dr. Cuff has led the Mellon-funded Urban Humanities Initiative at UCLA, one of the most innovative social justice curricula in the country. The significance of Cuff’s work is reflected in recent prestigious awards: Women in Architecture Activist of the Year (2019), Researcher of the Year (2020), Educator of the Year (2020), Public Impact Research Award (2022), and UCLA’s Faculty Research Lecturer (2023).