Michael Speaks is the dean of the College of Design at the University of Kentucky. He has published and lectured internationally on contemporary art, architecture, urban design, and scenario planning. The former director of the graduate program and founding director of the Metropolitan Research and Design Post Graduate Program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles, Speaks has also taught in the graphic design department at the Yale School of Art, and in the architecture programs at Harvard University, Columbia University, The University of Michigan, UCLA, the Delft University of Technology, and the Art Center College of Design. Speaks is founding editor of the cultural journal Polygraph and former editor at Any in New York and is currently a contributing editor for Architectural Record.