Karen M’Closkey to deliver Bracken Lecture at Stuckeman School Oct. 20

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa — Karen M’Closkey, associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, will visit the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School at Penn State to deliver a Department of Landscape Architecture John R. Bracken Lecture at 4:30 p.m Monday, Oct. 20. Titled “Mediating Landscapes,” the talk will be held in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space.

M’Closkey is co-founder, with Keith VanDerSys, of PEG office of landscape + architecture and co-founder of the Environmental Modeling Lab at UPenn, which recently received a National American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Honor Award for Research. Her work explores how advancements in digital mapping and modeling influence ways to understand landscapes and environments.

M’Closkey’s designs and research have earned multiple honors, including a 2013 Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the 2012-13 Garden Club of America Rome Prize in landscape architecture, and Analysis and Planning Awards from both the ASLA and World Landscape Architecture for her work in the Galápagos Islands.

M’Closkey’s publications include “Unearthed: The Landscapes of Hargeaves Associates” (2013), which received the J.B. Jackson Book Award, and “Dynamic Patterns: Visualizing Landscapes in Digital Age” (2017), co-authored with VanDerSys. She also is the editor in chief of LA+ Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture.

Established in 1982 through an endowment from the estate of John R. Bracken, the annual Bracken Lecture Series honors the former department head who led the program from 1924 to 1957. 

M’Closkey’s visit offers an opportunity to explore how digital innovation and ecological thinking are redefining the practice of landscape architecture today. The event is free and open to the public.