Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Landscape Architecture
Predoctoral Fellow (2026-27), Humanities Research Institute
Graduate Affiliate, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory

Research Description

Dissertation, “Nuclear Terrains: Four Landscapes Against Entanglement”

How can we understand nuclear landscapes as co-productive sites of human-nuclear entanglement, without erasing the power differentials at stake? Building on and against the new materialist conceptualizations of entanglement, my dissertation proposes a relational framework that unflattens “landscapes” into four analytic “terrains,” revealing configurations of power between human design-thinking and the confounds of radiological materiality. Through case studies that crosscut Japan (Hiroshima and Fukushima) and the United States (Illinois and New Mexico), I map these terrains across sites of nuclear infrastructure, warmaking, and scientific discovery to resituate power within the "more-than-human world" of new materialism and to envision ways of inhabiting the Nuclear Anthropocene.

Education

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  • Ph.D. Landscape Architecture (2022-present)
  • M.ARCH, School of Architecture (2022)
  • B.A. English (2017)

Additional Education

  • Certification in Critical Theory, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, UIUC (2026)
  • Institute in Environmental Humanities, Colby College (2025)
  • School of Criticism and Theory, Cornell University (2024)

Awards and Honors

Fellowships

  • Predoctoral Fellowship, Humanities Research Institute, UIUC (2026-27)
  • Japanese National Fellowship for Graduate Students Overseas, Japanese Student Service Organization, Japan (2024-)
  • Nicholson Fellowship, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, UIUC (2024)
  • Vincent Bellafiore Fellowship, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, UIUC (2022)
  • University Fellowship, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, UIUC (2022)
  • Baden-Württemberg-Stipendium, Baden-Württemberg Foundation, Germany (2022)

Travel Grants

  • George and Dorothy Fiel Fellowship, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, UIUC (2026)
  • Pauline Tilton Kennedy Prize, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, UIUC (2023)
  • Edward L. Ryerson Fellowship in Architecture, School of Architecture, UIUC (2022)

Courses Taught

Teaching Assistantships

  • ARCH 577: Theories of Architecture, School of Architecture, UIUC (2024 Fall; 2023 Fall)
  • LA 314: History of World Landscapes, Department of Landscape Architecture, UIUC  (2024 Spring)
  • ARCH 517: Modern Architectural History 1850-Present, School of Architecture, UIUC (2023 Spring)

Recent Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

  • "Nuclear Memory Entombed: The Architecture of Cocooning at the Hanford Site" (2026, forthcoming), Dimensions: Journal of Architectural Knowledge 5 (10). with Dr. William R. Roy (Nuclear, Plasma, & Radiological Engineering, UIUC)
  • "Landscape Entrusted: Depositing Nuclear Waste in Geologic Time" (2024), On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture 17

Essays for Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, UIUC

Symposia & Conferences Organized

  • Creativity in Modern Heritage (2026), School of Architecture/Dept. of Landscape Architecture, UIUC. with Kate E. Holliday (Architecture, UIUC) and Colter E. Wehmeier (Informatics, UIUC)
  • Technocracy Conference (2026), Unit for Criticism & Interpretive Theory, UIUC. with D. Fairchild Ruggles (Landscape Architecture/Unit for Criticism, UIUC)
  • Spaces of Nature/Natures of Space (2025), PhD Program in Architecture & Landscape Architecture, UIUC.