Germane Barnes is the Principal of Studio Barnes and Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Architecture Graduate Program at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Barnes’ practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation. A licensed architect, his work has recently been exhibited in the Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, and the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. He is a winner of the Architectural League Prize and is a Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. He was selected in the inaugural cohort of The Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab, created by Theaster Gates and sponsored by Prada. His work has also been featured and acquired for the permanent collections of international institutions, most notably San Francisco MoMA, LACMA, The New York Times, and The National Museum of African American History and Culture. His project, Griot, was widely published as a participant in the Biennale Architettura 2023, Laboratory of the Future.