I do three rather different things, but being an integration freak I have managed to bring them together. I am a professor of sociology in architecture, and a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, a system of posture and movement that involves mind-body integration. I brought these three worlds together in writing The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design (WWNorton paperback 2000). I am an aesthetically minded soul who got interested in the power of social structure while at Reed College. I created the sociology of architecture in order to confirm the importance of aesthetics in social life. Initially, I was led to an interest in the body by severe scoliosis, but I have become an advocate of body consciousness because the body is an important path to spiritual development.

This essay and portrait is part of a community-art and leadership project called “wdydwyd?” Tony Deifell (KNLP-16) invited his colleagues in the Kellogg Fellowship to reflect on what motivates them to follow their personal and professional paths by answering the question, “Why do you do what you do?”


“wdydwyd?” has reached over 1.5 million people worldwide and it has been used for team-building at Google, Twitter, many colleges and universities, nonprofits and K-12 classrooms. And, according to Wired Magazine, “In Silicon Valley, that question has been the hottest team-building meme since Outward Bound – and it’s spreading.” For more information: http://wdydwyd.com/leadership.


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