Diane Favro, professor of architecture and urban design, has been appointed associate dean of academic affairs for the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.
A sixth-generation Californian, Favro received degrees in commercial design, fine art and art history before completing the doctorate program in architectural history at UC Berkeley. She is the founding director and current co-director of the UCLA Experiential Technologies Center, which promotes the use of new technologies for experiential research in architecture, archaeology, classics, art history, the performing arts and other disciplines.
Favro’s research explores the urbanism of ancient Rome, archaeological historiography, women in architecture and digital applications of 3D modeling in the humanities. She published “Streets: Critical Perspectives on Public Space” (UC Press, 1994; Turkish editions 2007, 2011), “The Urban Image of Augustan Rome” (Cambridge University Press, 1996), and numerous writings on ancient architecture, urban laws and administration, the experience of ancient cities, gender issues in architecture and methods of architectural history, as well as digital visualizations.
Favro was an early adopter of 3D real-time digital modeling for historical research, receiving large grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Science Foundation and Intel, among other funders, for such pioneering, award-winning projects as the Digital Roman Forum and Digital Karnak. She collaborated on the establishment of vibrant interdisciplinary initiatives at UCLA in Digital Humanities and in Urban Humanities and sits on the cabinet of the Vice Chancellor of Research.
Among her many honors, Favro was selected to be Resident at the American Academy in Rome in 2014. She served as president of the national Society of Architectural Historians and is active in organizations and on editorial boards representing archaeology, architecture, digital pedagogy, women’s studies and simulation research.