Eric Nay

Dr. Eric Nay is an associate professor of architectural history & theory + environmental design at OCAD University in Toronto (Canada). Eric also teaches human geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at Mt. Allison University (New Brunswick, Canada) and periodically teaches architectural history and theory at the Daniels School of the University of Toronto (Canada) in both graduate and undergraduate programs. Eric holds the degrees: B. Arch (Kentucky), M.Arch (Cornell), PhD (Toronto) and was a Judge Kenneth Brille Scholar in Law (Hamline). He has served as a Program Director (Monterey, California); Assistant Dean, Associate Dean and Acting Dean (OCADU) and as a Board Member with non-profit, academic and governmental organizations in Canada and the US including the Humanities and Technology Association, the Council of Ontario Universities, the Ontario Crafts Council, et. al. Eric’s professional experience includes architectural practice in New York City, Chicago and California including working in SOM's Chicago office on large-scale projects in the Middle East, Asia and North America; working in Manhattan as a Project Architect on multiple residential and historic preservation projects; and in California designing medical labs, medical interiors and providing organizational strategies and way-finding solutions. Eric has taught for nearly three decades across a range of disciplines at the schools mentioned, as well as the State University of California at Sacramento (US), Ball State University (US), the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (US), the American University of Sharjah (UAE), the University of California at Davis (US), and as an instructor with the Irish Architecture Foundation (Ireland) and as a visiting scholar in urban design at King Mongkut's University of Technology in Bangkok (Thailand). Eric’s written work has appeared in docomomo (US), ICOMOS (Germany), Ediciones ARQ (Chile), Spool (Netherlands), Alternatives Journal (Canada), Open House International (UK), et. al. Chapters in books include “Erich Mendelsohn: Place, Identity and Exile,” In Positioning: Erich Mendelsohn and the Built Heritage of the 20th Century, ICOMOS – German National Committee LXXXII. Aachen: Geymüller-Verlag, 2024; Miller, James and Eric Nay. “Architecture and the Rights of Nature” in Dialectic VIII: Architecture and Citizenship. Decolonizing Architectural Pedagogy. San Rafael: Oro Editions. 2020; and “Sociologically Reframing Le Corbusier: Settler Colonialism, Modern Architecture and UNESCO” In Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place and Design, Springer International Publishing, 2017. Eric's PhD dissertation (Nay, Eric. Canonizing Le Corbusier: The Making of an Architectural Icon as Colonial Hegemony. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2018) is available as an open-sourced digital download. Eric will be teaching an intensive advanced seminar at the Daniels School for M.Arch and PhD students, ARC3319 Advanced Design Theories: Interrogating Space and Place in the Built Environment, this summer. This course, which Eric has taught before, is positioned as an advanced study of critical design methods rooted in sociology, human geography and phenomenology, which builds upon Eric’s ongoing research and in support of his project, “Being of Three Minds: Teaching Place as Pedagogy,” which is in process for submitting for publication in May for the journal, Folk, Knowledge, Place, with content to be presented amongst friends and colleagues in Nastved, Denmark in the early fall. Additionally building upon this research, Eric will be spending June in Newfoundland, which he has published work about previously as well.