2023 Class of Fellows, C.L. Bohannon, Virginia Chapter
The University of Virginia, Charlottesville
C. L. Bohannon is a transformational educator, researcher, administrator, and leader and is nationally recognized for his ground-breaking community-engaged research and place-based explorations in community mapping and storytelling. His work, focused on landscape, race, and the culture of place, offers the profession a model to more fully understand the complex histories of our shared public realm, interrogate traditional design practices, and point the way toward a more equitable future. C.L.'s comprehensive and progressive scholarship on community-engaged design and research uproots dominant narratives of power and place and addresses asymmetrical power relationships and systems that produce social and environmental inequalities within marginalized communities. Recognized for "Excellence in Service Learning" by CELA, C.L. incorporated community-engaged design into his studios and seminars to enable his students to work with his RP3 approach-real people, in real places, with real problems. C.L. centers questions of justice and equity on intentionally cultivating pathways for transformation through his pedagogy, scholarship, and community work. He is building a vision of community-driven projects in which landscape architects can be responsive to the unique histories of people and place. In recognition of his many years of work in these areas, in 2022 he became the inaugural Dean of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) for the architecture school at the University of Virginia, where he is a tenured professor.
