Adrian Parr

Adrian Parr is an internationally recognized writer, public speaker, 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 and public radio.

She is the Dean of the College of Design at the University of Oregon and a Senior Fellow of DesignIntelligence. She has served as a UNESCO water chair for eight years and 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 and co-directed (with Sean Hughes): Thirsty and Drowning in America and The Intimate Realities of Water. 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.

She is the curator of the Transpecies Design and Watershed Urbanism exhibits both held at the European Cultural Center during the 2021 and 2023 Venice Architecture Biennales. The driving force behind all her work is the question of how to overcome ecological and economic scarcity. She asserts that environmental devastation and climate change are crimes against humanity.