Ph.D. and Master of Science Students

Name	Degrees	Research Interests/Specializations
Arfa Aijazi	B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2013) M.S. in Building Technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2017)	building performance simulations, data visualization, machine learning, and climate change adaptability.
AMINA AL-KANDARI	M.S in Architecture from University of California at Berkeley (2010) M. ARCH in Architecture and Urban Design Studies from Syracuse University (2007) B. ARCH from University of Miami (2005)	Alkandari is a PhD Candidate in Architecture with a Designated Emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, specialized in History of Architecture and Contemporary Urbanization in Developing Countries with focus on the Middle East and the Arab Gulf specifically. Her Ph.D. dissertation focuses on Nation-Building and Modernity in Kuwait from the Early 1900 to the present.
Heba Alnajada	B.S. Architectural Engineering, The University of Jordan M.A. Urban Design (Distinction), The University of Sheffield	Forced and Voluntary Migration; Displacement; Exile; Subjectivity Refugee Camps; Politics and Discourses of humanitarianism; NGO’s Nation-states and Nation-Building; Cities and Citizenship; Middle-East
Luis Filipe Batista
Laura Belik	M.A. Design Studies - Parsons The New School for Design, New York, NY B.Arch. Architecture and Urban Planning – Escola da Cidade, Sāo Paulo Brazil	Urbanism, public space, politics of space, urban democracy, commons, Latin America, Brazil, post-industrial cities, urban palimpsest, art and activism, curatorial works, cultural frameworks.
Michelle Bynum
YING-FEN CHEN	M.S. of Engineering: Building and Planning, NTU, Taipei, Taiwan B.S. of Engineering: Civil Engineering, NTU, Taipei, Taiwan	Chinese Urbanism, Cinema and Cities, Social Activism in East Asian context, Participatory Planning. My recent research focuses on the cultural process of urban imaginary making, film-induced tourism, and decentralized Chinese identities, particularly taking place in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the two major culturally Chinese locales beyond Mainland China. Dissertation working title: "The Contemporary Chinese Cinematic Urbanism in Taiwan and Hong Kong".
Lai Jing Chu	M.S. in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture, Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation MArch, University of Hong Kong B.A.(Hons), University of Manchester	Media and environments, theories of leisure and enchantment in post-industrial modernity, history of collective emotions and its impact on spatial formation, urban gentrification and preservation, architectural and urban history of modern and contemporary Hong Kong, China, and East Asia.
Alexander Craghead	M.S., Architecture, University of California at Berkeley B. A., Communications, Marylhurst University Certificate in Conflict Resolution and Mediation, Marylhurst University	I am a historian of technology, representation, and landscape. I research the cultural intersection of meaning, change, and place, through both form and representation. I therefore study the built environment, the rhetoric that surrounds changes in that environment, and the visual depiction of place. I am particularly interested in the relationship between newness and age, especially in the processes of urban renewal, redevelopment, and gentrification, as well as the history and culture of the historic preservation movement. The nature of my work is interdisciplinary, in that it combines history, geography, and art history. Presently, I study sites on the U.S. West Coast, as here, in the youngest of Euro-American cities, the constructed nature of age and obsolescence is more easily seen. I am particularly interested in the ways that buildings, both intentionally and unintentionally, become arguments in larger cultural struggles, as well as exist as tangible evidence of real winners and losers in the making of place. More broadly, I am interested in architecture as media, the role of the urban imaginary, and cities as cultural landscapes.
Megan Dawe	B.S. Environmental Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara	Ms. Dawe comes with a background in California state building energy codes and consulting on new construction projects. Her research interests are to identify appropriate and climatically-driven solutions for buildings and to enhance the tools necessary for designers to accurately assess and implement these solutions to faciliate achievement of California’s Zero Net Energy goals.
CAITLIN DECLERCQ	M.S. Teaching & Curriculum; Specialization in Health Professions Education, Warner Graduate School of Education, University of Rochester B.A. Anthropology; Phi Beta Kappa, University of California, Berkeley	Social research theories and methods in environmental design; the history and theory of college campus planning and design; social and historical contexts of educational spaces; evidence-based design; college health promotion; place and health; social determinants of health (social epidemiology); physical activity and sedentary physiology
Giuseppina Forte	M.S. Architecture, University of California, Berkeley B.A. Architecture, La Sapienza University, Rome (Summa cum Laude) M.A. Equiv. Architecture Licensure, National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, U.S.A. Professional Degree in Architecture, Ministry of Education and Research, Italy	Spatial Politics; Inequality; Epistemologies of Architecture and Planning; History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism; Decolonizing Pedagogies; Racial Capitalism; Urban Peripheries; Brazil; Peripheral Subjectivities.
Jennifer Gaugler	Master of Architecture, Tulane University Bachelor of Science in Art and Design (Architecture), Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Historic and contemporary architecture and urbanism of East Africa; globalization, postcolonialism, vernacular building traditions, and urban planning
Razieh Ghorbani	M.Arch, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor M.S. in Architecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	The everyday politics of architecture and construction in the Middle East; urban anthropology; architectural globalization and its rhetoric; postcolonial and alternative modernities
JAIME GÓMEZ	M.Arch.II, McGill University, Canada. Professional degree in Architecture, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia.	Ordinary buildings and landscapes. History of housing. Domesticity. Cultural landscape studies. Vernacular architecture. Housing design. Dissertation: Learning through Domestic Settings: Institutional Domesticity and the Making of Model Citizens (working title): My dissertation explores how two institutions (boarding schools) used domestic settings and practices to influence children’s behavior with the aim of making model citizens. I use methods from cultural landscape studies to understand how the values promoted by these schools were coded in the institutions’ spatial configurations, and how children learned these values. I read the spatial settings of the institutions studied as domestic space.
Caroline Karmann	Masters in Climate and Energy (2008), INSA Strasbourg, France Masters in Architecture (2006), INSA Strasbourg, France	Indoor environmental quality (including thermal comfort, visual comfort, acoustic comfort & indoor air quality), energy efficiency, user behavior
Mohammad Keshavarzi	Bachelor of Architectural Engineering - University of Tehran MS of Architecture - UC Berkeley	Immersive Design, Augmented/Virtual Reality, Generative Design, Evolutionary Algorithms, Computational Design
Joyce (Jihyun) Kim	M.S. Sustainable Design, Philadelphia University B.S. Civil Engineering, University of Waterloo	Thermal comfort, occupant behavior, machine learning, energy efficiency, demand response and smart grids.
Antony Kim	M.S. in Architecture, University of California Berkeley B.S. in Industrial Engineering, Humboldt State University	Behavioral neurobiology and architecture, lighting for circadian health, post-occupancy evaluation, affordable housing policy, circular economy, and indoor environmental quality in animal research.
Jihyun Kim
Won Hee Ko	B.Arch Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea Master in Building Science, University of Southern California	Visual and thermal comfort and its relationship to occupants' well-being and performance, with a focus on the performance of building envelope.
Jolene Lee	B.A.(Arch), National University of Singapore M.Arch, National University of Singapore M.Des, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University	History of Architecture and Urbanism (20th Century), Architecture and Art Exhibition Histories, Ecocriticism, Comparative Asian Studies, Global Modernisms, Environmental Histories
Padma Maitland	M.A. in South Asian Studies, UC Berkeley M.A. in South Asian Studies, UC Berkeley M.Arch. Princeton University B.A. in Architecture, UC Berkeley	Art and Architecture in South Asia; Buddhism; Conservation and heritage; Countercultural exchanges between India and California.
Dana Miller	M.S. Civil Engineering, UC Berkeley B.S. Environmental Engineering, Yale University	Building energy performance Control systems HVAC systems Open-source data analysis tools Ceiling fans Indoor air quality (IAQ) and bioaerosols
Michelle Min	B.A. History, University of California, Berkeley	History of American school architecture; Social construction of childhood; Purpose-built spaces for children and learning; Possibilities for intersection between critical pedagogy, architectural history, and contemporary design practice
Thomas Oommen	B.Arch (Professional), National Institute of Technology Calicut, India M.Arch (Professional), Texas A&M University Master of Urban Planning (Professional), Texas A&M University
Tania Osorio Harp	B.Arch, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City.	Design processes, the appropriation of spaces, methods of representation, architecture as an archive, design genealogies, Mexican identity, mestizaje, cultural landscape studies, critical race theories, women and gender studies.
Eric Peterson	Master of Environmental Design, Yale University Bachelor of Arts, Hampshire College	Architectural and Urban History, Political Economy, Urban Theory, U.S. Cultural History
Kara Plaxa	M.Arch., Wentworth Institute of Technology B.S. Architecture, Wentworth Institute of Technology	My research is structured around the places where sex happens and how sex is spatialized. I am currently investigating the spaces of the kink community with an emphasis on queer sexuality and subcultures. I am also interested in aesthetics, materiality, and fashion. I aim to enrich current discourse on gender and sexuality & through architsexture
Elaina Present	B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Building energy use; data-based energy analysis; grid modernization; occupant behavior; existing buildings; fans
Rina Priyani	M.S. in Architecture, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia B.Arch. in Architectural Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia Certificate in Cultural Heritage Preservation, Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO, Nara, Japan	History of architecture and urbanism in the 20th century; National identity in developing countries; Ethnicity and territoriality; Colonial and Postcolonial cities; Politics of heritage; Collective memory; Southeast Asia; Indonesia. Dissertation working title: "Remaking Bandung: Ethnic Identities, Colonialism and Building Practice in an Indonesian City"
Trude Renwick	MDesS History and Philosophy of Design - Graduate School of Design at Harvard University B.A. Anthropology from Brandeis University B.A. Urban Studies from Brandeis University	Urban Ethnography in Bangkok, Thailand; Currently Examining the Space of the Market in Bangkok, which includes Malls, Street Markets, and Abandoned Buildings; Urban Conflict and Political Movements; Urban Theory; Non Governmental Organizations; Anthropology
Emily J. Rosen
Valentina Rozas-Krause	MS in Urban Planning, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Professional Degree in Architecture, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile BArch, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile	Valentina Rozas-Krause is interested in the History of Architecture and Urbanism, Memorials and Monuments, Cultural Memory, Theories of Urban Design and Planning, Landscape Design and Cultural Geography. Her dissertation research focuses on the representation of memories of twentieth century traumas in public urban space in Argentina, Germany and the United States. She studies monuments on two levels: as an emerging global practice of memorialization and as places for everyday life. Valentina grew up in Berlin and Santiago.
Alberto Sanchez-Sanchez	M.S. in Historic Preservation, Columbia University, 2016 Professional Degree in Architecture, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 2012	Modern architecture; vernacular architecture; infrastructures and public works; historic preservation; media studies; anthropology; demography; human rights; material culture; public policy; rural areas; Spanish and European studies.
Ettore Santi	B.S. Architecture, Polytechnic University of Milan M.S. Architecture, Polytechnic University of Milan Master of Architecture, Tongji University of Shanghai	Global Agrarian Change; Urban Design Theory and Criticism; Land and Space; China Rural-Urban Studies.
Haripriya Sathyanarayanan	M.Sc in Building Science, School of Design & Environment, National University of Singapore (2010) B.Arch, University of Madras, India (2001)	Research Interests: Evidence-based Design, Immersive Environments and Experience in Healthcare Spaces, Enhanced Patient and Family Experiences, Human-Centric Design, Smart Hospital Environments, Digital Technology and Disruptions in Healthcare, User Behavior, Healthcare Quality Care & Delivery. Specializations: Total Building Performance, Sustainable Healthcare Design, Building Performance Simulations, Passive Design Strategies, Healing Environments.
Cailin Shannon
Shahrzad Shirvani	M.S. in Architecture, University of California, Berkeley Master of Architecture, Islamic Azad University (Central Tehran Branch) Bachelor of Architectural Engineering, Islamic Azad University (Central Tehran Branch)	Contemporary urban history of developing countries with a focus on Iran; Politics of everyday life in the Middle Eastern cities with a focus on Tehran; Construction of national identity through practices of shared memory and commemoration in Iran; Contemporary histories and narratives of monuments, Traditions and Modernities in the context of the Middle East; Cities, citizenship, and urban transformations; gendered segregation and urban politics of social control; Publicity and ‘freedom’; Public spaces of leisure and entertainment.
Noam Shoked	Master of Architecture, The Cooper Union Master of Architectural History, McGill University	History of architecture and urbanism, ordinary landscapes, urban anthropology, and Middle Eastern studies
Alec Stewart	M.A. Geography, 2011, George Washington University B.A. Geography, 2005, UC Berkeley; Minor in City and Regional Planning	US metropolitan history and life Twentieth century North American built environment studies Cultural landscape studies American consumer culture Spaces and theories of citizenship and public space Immigration and immigrant space
ELAINE BROWN STILES	BA, Art History, Smith College MA, Preservation Studies, Boston University	Twentieth-century U.S. architecture and urbanism, nineteenth and twentieth-century U.S. and European suburban development and design, the history of consumerism and spaces of consumption, material culture, vernacular architecture, and cultural landscape studies
Elnaz Tafrihi	Master in Design Studies, Harvard University Graduate School of Design Master of Architecture, University of Utah Bachelor of Architectural Engineering, University of Art, Tehran	Elnaz Tafrihi is a designer and a PhD student in Building Science program at UC Berkeley . Her background in daylight and energy simulation highlight Elnaz’s ability to inform the human relationship with the built environment. After receiving her Masters in design studies from Harvard, Elnaz worked in the energy consulting field on large scale projects including the Tianjin Juilliard School of Music, Dubai Expo 2020, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Elnaz currently works on integration of building simulation in virtual reality.
Desirée Valadares	M.Arch (Post-Professional), Urban Design and Housing, McGill University MLA (Professional) Landscape Architecture, University of Guelph MLA-Exchange, Coursework in M.Sc. Architectural Conservation, University of Edinburgh B.Arts Sc. (Combined Hons.) Arts and Science and Art History, McMaster University	Critical heritage studies Land, territory and U.S. empire Critical race, Indigeneity and Asian/Native relationality Settler colonial studies and critical infrastructure Militarism, war and national parks Transitional justice and judicial accountability in settler states Transpacific studies (Archipelagic and Oceanic studies / Arctic and Northern studies / Pacific Canadian studies)
Swetha Vijayakumar	MS Architecture in Environmental Design, UC Berkeley B Arch, RV College of Engineering, Bangalore, India	Architectural history and historiography, Postcolonial theories in architecture and urbanism, Subaltern architecture, Politics of memory in urban enviroments, Patronage and production of contemporary Hindu sites, Colonial historiographies of Hindu temples, Anthropology of urban tourism, Religious nationalism and emergence of modern religious movements in 20th and 21st century India.
Jonathan Woolley	M.S. Mechanical & Aeronautical Engineering, 2008, University of California, Davis B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 2005, University of California, Davis	Jonathan Woolley studies energy efficient mechanical systems for buildings. Most broadly, his research encompasses hybrid solutions that integrate various system types to facilitate comfortable and healthy indoor environments with minimal energy consumption. Jonathan advances climate appropriate strategies that embrace the unique needs and opportunites associated with local environmental condiitions. He has conducted research on passive solar design, natural ventilation, radiant cooling and heating, indirect evaporative cooling, advanced heat pump systems, heat recovery, occupancy based learning thermostat controls, and many other energy efficiency strategies.
JIONG (ABINGO) WU	M.Arch., Berlage Institute, Rotterdam B.Engineering, ( South China Univ. of Technology, Guangzhou)	Histories and Approaches of 20th Century Mass Housing; Theories and Histories of 20th Century Urbanism; Interdisciplinary China Study; China urbanizing villages. Dissertation: “Alternative Housing and Living in Guangzhou Peri-urban Villages”
Stathis G. Yeros	Master of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley MA (honours) History of Art and Theatre Studies, University of Glasgow, UK	My research investigates how the politics of sexuality in the U.S. inform claims to particular physical environments, how people inhabit them, and what inhabitation reveals about the discursive construction of identity categories and the aesthetics that are associated with each of them. In my dissertation I argue that different LGBTQ groups create spatial and temporal “fixes” based on the ways sexuality intersects with race, gender, ethnicity, age, and bodily ability, to serve their needs. I do this by probing into the histories of a number of LGBTQ spaces in San Francisco and Oakland since 1964, which demonstrate that the bifurcation of these spaces into assimilationist and non-assimilationist in much of the existing literature does not capture their complexity. I concluded that particular environments may eventually disappear, but their material and immaterial legacies inform new spatial and social formations all around the Bay Area, such as cooperatives, clinics, and spaces for entertainment. Before my doctoral studies I obtained a Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley and worked as a designer in the Bay Area in the field of housing and education facilities. Besides my professional and scholarly work I have developed solo and group experimantal performances.