Meet Adrian
Adrian Parr Zaretsky is an internationally recognized philosopher, cultural thinker and creative practitioner. She is serving as a UNESCO Chair on Water and Human Settlements. She is the Dean of the College of Design at the University of Oregon and a Senior Fellow of DesignIntelligence. Prior to joining the University of Oregon, she served as the Dean of the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington, and as the Director of the Taft Research Center at the University of Cincinnati.
She is the founding signatory of the Geneva Actions on Human Water Security.
She has produced two award-winning documentaries, Thirsty and Drowning in America and The Intimate Realities of Water, directed in collaboration with Sean Hughes. Her video works, A Tale of Three Rocks and Watershed Urbanism have both received multiple honors at art film festivals in the US and Europe. Her creative works have been exhibited at the European Cultural Center’s Venice Biennale Exhibits. Her latest publication, Earthlings, earned a silver award from the 2023 Nautilus Book Awards in the Ecology & Environment category.
She is a writer, public speaker, painter and filmmaker. She has published numerous books and articles and has been interviewed for her views on social and environmental justice by The New York Times, public radio and television. She has published op-eds in The LA Review of Books, The World Financial Review, and The European Magazine.
As governments, policy makers, and the courts worldwide struggle to redress environmental degradation and the harms experienced by vulnerable communities, Zaretsky looks to themes of equity, friendship, and generosity as starting points for change.
She argues in favor of creating social models premised upon open-minded, ecologically conscious, non-violent, and participatory ways of living. She maintains an inclusive emancipatory political imagination will help get us there.
