Please join the College of Design for the fall 2025 architecture lecture series. This is the Linda and Turan Duda Travel Fellowship Friday Forum.

Pradeepa Kannadasan

Pradeepa Renuga Kannadasan is an architectural designer and M.Arch. Track II graduate (May 2023). Raised in Pondicherry, a post-colonial city shaped by French rule until 1954, she developed an early awareness of the layered cultural and architectural narratives embedded in cities. At NC State University she explored themes of justice in the built environment, racial inequality, tectonics of design, and public interest architecture, which led her to question how identity and equity are negotiated in cities shaped by colonial and postcolonial histories. Her travel fellowship project, Contested Modernities: Postcolonial Modernism of Southeast Asia, examines how architecture in newly independent nations expressed cultural identity while navigating colonial legacies. 

Purvij Munshi

Purvij Munshi is a design professional from India with a Master’s degree in Architecture from NC State University, driven by a passion for community-based design and experiential architecture. Believing in the transformative power of architecture as a force for social justice, his travel fellowship research, “Empowering Marginalized Communities in Africa”, took him across multiple African countries to study the socio-economic and environmental challenges confronting underserved populations. Through in-depth fieldwork, policy analysis, and participatory design methods, Purvij examined how inclusive, community-driven interventions can address systemic inequities while amplifying local voices in decision-making. His work seeks to bridge research and advocacy, inspiring design solutions that not only respond to immediate needs but also strengthen long-term community resilience and self-determination.