School of Architecture faculty member Dr. Rafael De Balanzo Joue has been awarded a Fulbright Specialist Program grant by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. As a Fulbright Specialist, Dr. De Balanzo Joue will collaborate with Architectural Institute in Prague (ARCHIP) and Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic to lead the Resilience Thinking Laboratory: Shifting STEM to STEAM by TEPs—based on a Pratt Institute National Science Foundation initiative designed to foster transdisciplinary educational exchange in the fields of architecture, design, fine arts, communication and environmental science.
Dr. De Balanzo Joue’s work integrates sustainability, resilience complex adaptive systems thinking, and transition design from his ongoing research supported by the National Science Foundation. His Fulbright project builds on curricular innovations already implemented at Pratt Institute, including the undergraduate course MSCI 271: Ecology for Architects and the graduate-level GCPE-SES 631: Sustainable Communities. These courses exemplify a shift from STEM to STEAM, bridging scientific inquiry with the creative practices of design and architecture to address complex socio-ecological and technological challenges. Central to his research is the concept of resilience thinking—a systems-based, empathetic, and adaptive framework for understanding and responding to climate change, social inequities, and environmental stressors. His pedagogical approach aims to equip both students and educators with the tools to develop innovative, real-world solutions through collaborative and transdisciplinary learning.
During his time in the Czech Republic, Dr. De Balanzo Joue will lead a series of workshops and lectures at Brno University of Technology, Czech Technical University, and the Architectural Institute in Prague (ARCHIP) from May to June 2025. This opportunity was made possible in part through the collaboration of Yvette Vašourková, Fulbright Scholar from Czechia at Pratt Institute.
