Eric Nay

Dr. Eric Nay (B. Arch, Kentucky; M.Arch. Cornell; PhD, Sosc. Ed. OISE Toronto) is an associate professor of architectural history & theory + environmental design at OCAD University in Toronto (Canada), lecturer in human geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at Mt. Allison University (New Brunswick, Canada) and teaches architectural history and theory at the Daniels School of the University of Toronto. 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 residential and historic preservation projects; and California designing medical labs and interiors. Eric has taught for nearly three decades at 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 has served as an instructor with the Irish Architecture Foundation (Ireland). Eric’s written work has appeared in docomomo (US), Ediciones ARQ (Chile), Spool (Netherlands), Alternatives Journal (Canada), Open House International (UK). 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, amongst others. Current research includes the recently published Nay, E. (2025). Canadian Contexts: Place as Pedagogy. Folk, Knowledge, Place, 2(1), 108–126. https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.141208. This publication, written in collaboration with colleagues Eric has been working with for more than a decade, originally based in Denmark and previously based Ireland under the name, Island Dynamics, also includes presentation. At an upcoming conference upcoming conference: “Placemaking across time: Histories of spatialized knowledge,” to be held in Næstved and Karrebæksminde, Denmark. This publication and the multi-tiered body of research and courses developed in support of this research draws upon longstanding collaborations with Mt. Allison University (New Brunswick), where Eric is a continuing lecturer in the Department of Geography and the Environment, as well as the Daniels School at the University of Toronto where Eric teaches graduate seminars in architectural theory, the Irish Architecture Foundation, as well as numerous ongoing courses at OCAD University with substantial financial support from Mt. Allison University. Other related projects include explorations in the intersection of architectural imaginaries, film and catastrophe theory with a publication pending in "The Aesthetics of Disaster," special issue of The Polish Journal of Aesthetics. Volume 77 (2/2026) with a presentation of this work pending at Cross Disciplinary, International Conference, “Climate, Environment, Psyche and History," in Grand Rapids, Michigan, October 17-18, as well as work in progress that expands this work into the Arctic, which includes “Arctic Imaginaries: Place as Pedagogy,” to be presented at the UArctic Congress 2026, which will take place from May 26 to 29, 2026 in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands (DK).