I am an artist, illustrator, historian, and professional educator. My visual work,available at www.matthewjbach.com, mostly reflects upon the history of art and architecture, ruin aesthetic, and the semiotics of different art historical visual programs and dialectics. My academic work is primarily concerned with the role of the built environment (architecture, landscape, & spatial design) in political economy; in particular, that which is contested in the urban through struggles for collective governance, democratic design, the urban commons, and the right to the city. I attempt to bring these various interests together in the classes I teach.