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Office: Gould 348F
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Phone: 206.616.8697
lmanzo@u.washington.edu

Research Keywords
environmental psychology, place attachment, place and well-being, displacement

Lynne Manzo

Professor

Curriculum Vitae

Lynne Manzo, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. She teaches in both the BLA and MLA programs. Dr. Manzo is also an Affiliate Faculty member in the PhD Program in the Built Environment and the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning, and an Adjunct Professor in the UW School of Social Work.

As an Environmental Psychologist by training, Professor Manzo specializes in the study of the interrelationships between people and their physical surroundings. Her view of the environment includes not only natural and built settings, but also the socio-cultural and political milieu that shape the appearance, meanings and uses of space.

Research Focus

Prof Manzo’s interests and areas of research focus on people-place relationship in urban space through a social justice lens, with particular attention to place attachment, place meaning & identity, as well as the politics of place. She has spent years conducting housing research and participating in advocacy efforts for affordable housing. This includes investigations of grassroots organizing and building rehabilitation efforts among residents of landlord-abandoned buildings in Harlem and the South Bronx, and conducting research for the Seattle Housing Authority, the King County Housing Authority and the Bremerton Housing Authority to understand the impacts of public housing demolition and redevelopment on low-income communities.

Currently, Prof Manzo’s work focuses on place change, displacement and anti-displacement strategies. In one of her research projects, she is working with the non-profit, community-based organization Wa Na Wari, which “creates space for Black homeownership, possibility, belonging, and artistic creativity” in Seattle’s historically Black Central District, to conduct research that supports their ongoing anti-displacement organizing work. Related to this, in the Spring of 2020, Prof Manzo led an advanced, graduate-level research studio on anti-displacement strategies with King County as the client, focusing on the diverse communities of Skyway-West Hill and White Center/North Highline (report forthcoming). These majority minority communities are currently under serious threat of gentrification and displacement.

Recent publications include the second edition of Place Attachment: Advances in Theory, Methods and Applications, (December 2020) and Changing Senses of Place: Navigating Global Challenges (to be released in early 2021). Dr. Manzo has also published in various refereed journals including the Journal of Environmental Psychology, International Journal of Housing Policy, Journal of Planning Literature, Urban Affairs, The Journal of Architecture and Planning Research and Housing Policy Debate.

Select Recent Publications

Changing Senses of Place – Navigating Global Challenges. Cambridge University Press, 2021.

“”Re-placed” – Reconsidering relationships with place and lessons from a pandemic.” Journal of environmental psychology, 72, 2020.

“Between fixities and flows: Navigating place attachments in an increasingly mobile world.” Journal of environmental psychology, 61, 2019.

“Qualitative Data and Design: Understanding the Experiential Qualities of Place.” Technology | Architecture + Design, 3(2) 142-145, 2019.

“Unsettling senses of place: Displacement and the (re)making of place in a rapidly changing city.” In Change Senses of Place in the Face of Global Challenges. Cambridge University Press, 2021.

“The Role and Value of Qualitative Methods for the Study of Place Attachments.” In Place Attachment: Advances in Theory, Methods and Applications. London: Routledge, 2020.

Justice, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Prof Manzo is deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and has expressed this through various teaching, research and service work. She currently serves as a College Representative on the UW Diversity Council, is the co-Chair of the College’s Diversity Council, and a member of the Department’s Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She also serves on the GO-MAP (Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program) Advisory Board for the UW Graduate School, an organization committed to supporting graduate students of color at the UW.

She is a founding member of the Anti-Oppression Reading Group for department faculty so we can educate ourselves, and find inspiration in ways to fight systemic oppression – from learning about research as resistance, to meaningful white allyship to liberatory design praxis. The group continues to meet and discuss these vital issues.

Teaching Statement

For Prof Manzo, teaching is a passion. She strives to make the educational process an exciting, interactive and participatory one focusing on real-world issues and problems. She is committed to the process of discovery and seeks to help students fully understand the impact of the designed environment on people’s lives, and to appreciate the nature and nuances of the dynamics between people and places in all of their complexity.

Prof Manzo approaches students as whole persons, and seeks to foster critical reflexivity – a combination of critical awareness and engagement, or what Paolo Freire calls “Conscientization.” This means challenging our assumptions and exploring new possibilities, being aware of our own positionality, suspending what we think is ‘obvious’, and  considering alternative framings.