Three Sam Fox School Faculty Awarded Tenure

“I am delighted to celebrate this well-deserved milestone with Heidi, Pablo, and Kelley. Their dedication to teaching and research is truly inspiring — whether through Heidi’s exploration of memory, material culture, and the complexities of urban identity; Pablo’s innovative work in sustainable concrete fabrication; or Kelley’s integration of materiality, digital design, and public engagement,” said Carmon Colangelo, the Ralph J. Nagel Dean of the Sam Fox School. “Their work makes our school an exciting and dynamic place for students, faculty, and staff.”

She is currently at work on a book-length study of the long history of “negative heritage” in the U.S. — sites said to be haunted, cursed, contaminated, or otherwise “unredeemable” in ethical, material, interpretative, and political terms, but that nevertheless have a powerful hold on the American imagination.

Kolk is also co-editor, with Iver Bernstein in Arts & Sciences, of “The Material World of Modern Segregation: St. Louis in the Long Era of Ferguson” (2022), a collection of essays that interrogate the material histories and lived experiences of the segregated city. A symposium on the same topic will take place in April 2025.

Kolk previously served as associate director of the American Culture Studies program, and she has served in a variety of other administrative roles at WashU. She earned a master’s degree in English and American literature, a doctoral certificate in American culture studies, and a doctorate in English and American literature, all from Washington University, along with her bachelor’s degree in English and fine arts from Hope College.

Moyano Fernández’s teaching examines concrete, innovative formwork techniques, its impact on the making of assemblies, and its potential architectural applications at multiple scales. He is the coordinator of Building Systems, an introductory course focused on contemporary building practices. Moyano Fernández served as the faculty design leader for WashU’s 2017 solar decathlon team — the university’s first time entering the competition organized by the U.S. Department of Energy — which developed CRETE house, a precast concrete house featuring an innovative enclosure system. The project was awarded second place in the architecture contest. He was also a semifinalist in the 2020 Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge.

Moyano Fernández earned a Master of Architecture and Master of Urban Design at WashU and became a lecturer at the university in 2007. Prior to his graduate studies at WashU, he earned a professional degree in architecture from the University of Buenos Aires, where he graduated with honors. He was awarded the AIA medal for scholastic achievement and professional promise. 

Murphy is a 2024-2025 Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellow — along with collaborators and Sam Fox School faculty Chandler Ahrens and Constance Vale — affiliate faculty with the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity, and received the 2024-2025 Emerson Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2024, she was awarded the Diversity Achievement Award by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Murphy has served as an academic team leader for the Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop, convened by Carnegie Mellon, the University at Buffalo, and Boston Valley Terracotta. Her work has been funded by the Regional Arts Commission, the Downtown Public Partnership of St. Louis, the Ann Arbor Arts Commission, Landmarks Columbus Foundation, HOK, Cortex, and WashU. Murphy is the co-director of Fox Fridays, an interdisciplinary workshop series encouraging experimentation with tools, processes, and technology; has led the school’s pre-college Architecture Discovery Program since 2021; and has led the school’s Alberti Program: Architecture for Young People since 2024. Murphy’s research and teaching aspires to support a more inclusive architectural history, and she is dedicated to advancing the conversations around diversity in architecture and design — including how we can improve access to architectural education.

Murphy earned a Master of Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and a Bachelor of Arts from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She joined the Sam Fox School faculty as a lecturer in 2017.

In addition to their other research projects, Kolk and Murphy are co-lead investigators, along with Lynette Widder of Columbia University, in the Mellon Foundation-funded interdisciplinary research project, “Beauty in Enormous Bleakness: The Design Legacy of the Interned Generation of Japanese Americans.” The project illuminates hidden histories — and largely untold narratives — about Japanese Americans designers’ incarceration during World War II and postwar experiences. The project seeks to reframe this history through a different set of values — social and personal histories as expressed through material culture and its relationship to specific sites — while offering a more complete and inclusive reading of American design history. The research has evolved as an exhibition, podcast series, and the symposium, Moonscape of the Mind, which expanded on this research and brought an international group of architects, artists, and historians to WashU to present original research. With Kolk, Murphy is currently co-editing, “Beauty in Enormous Bleakness: The Legacies of Japanese American Incarceration in Postwar Design, Art and Architecture” (Bloomsbury), a series of object-focused essays that explore art and design projects pursued by survivors, accounting for the complex interplay between their most influential works, their lived experiences, and broader cultural events. In May, Murphy and Kolk will teach Dislocated: Memory, Forgetting, and the Landscapes of Japanese American Incarceration, the 2025 American Culture Studies On Location travel-based course that investigates the cultural and material landscapes of Japanese American incarceration, giving special attention to the problems of memory associated with these events.