Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko has resigned as dean of the Spitzer School of Architecture at City College in New York, citing a crippling workload and a lack of empathy for black women.
Lokko described her resignation, just 10 months into her role at the Manhattan college, as a "profound act of self-preservation" in a statement published by Architectural Record.
"The lack of meaningful support ? not lip service, of which there's always a surfeit ? meant my workload was absolutely crippling," Lokko said.
"No job is worth one's life and at times I genuinely feared for my own."
New York-based curator Beatrice Galilee described Lokko's experience as a "damning indictment of US academic institutions" in a comment on Twitter. "The lack of respect and empathy for Black people caught me off guard"
Lokko described her experience of being a black woman in America in contrast to her experience in South Africa, where she founded and led the Graduate School of Architecture (GSA) at the University of Johannesburg.
"Race is never far from the surface of any situation in the US," Lokko added in the statement. "Having come directly from South Africa, I wasn't prepared for the way it manifests in the US and quite simply, I lacked the tools to both process and deflect it."
"The lack of respect and empathy for Black people, especially Black women, caught me off guard, although it's by no means unique to Spitze...