Anna Renken, a PhD candidate at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, with a collaborative specialization in environmental studies, has been recognized by the Graham Foundation with the 2025 Carter Manny Research Award. 

Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The award supports emerging scholars completing exceptional doctoral dissertations in this area.  

Renken’s doctoral thesis explores how North American architect-led laboratories advanced ecological design through engagement with science and technology from the 1970s to 1990s. Her research seeks to contribute to new histories of ecological design. Renken also received the Beatrice and Arthur Minden Graduate Research Fellowship from U of T’s School of the Environment. 

“Congratulations to Anna for this prestigious recognition of her research,” said Professor Claire Zimmerman, director of the PhD program at the Daniels Faculty. “The Carter Manny is the most celebrated doctoral award in our field. Anna’s work exemplifies the bold, interdisciplinary inquiries our graduate students are undertaking.”

Renken’s doctoral supervisor is Associate Professor Mary Louise Lobsinger and interdisciplinary committee members include James Graham, an assistant professor at the California College of the Arts, Assistant Professor Jason Nguyen, Avery Slater, an associate professor in the Department of English & Drama at the University of Toronto Mississauga and a research lead at U of T’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and Zimmerman.