Jolene W.H. Lee

History of architecture and urbanism (20th Century), architecture and art exhibition histories, eco-criticism, comparative Asian studies, global modernisms, environmental histories.

Jolene W.H. Lee is a PhD student in architecture, with emphasis in history, theory, and society. Her research brings together architectural history, plant humanities and the politics of display to examine how botanical materials and landscaped environments shape urban identity, environmental governance and national representation. With a regional focus on Singapore and Southeast Asia, she is especially interested in how plants act as political agents, narrative devices, curatorial matter and infrastructural forms within both built and natural environments.

Her dissertation, tentatively titled “Botanical Statecraft: Constructing, Curating and Consuming the (Tropical) Garden/City, Singapore,” explores how Singapore uses the garden city rhetoric and all its material constituents as a strategic medium of statecraft. It examines how botanical forms are curated, circulated and staged across ephemeral and institutional spaces, and how vegetal aesthetics mediate power, memory and futurity in the city. At the same time, it seeks to unearth the interstitial, the unruly and the moments where plants — and their humans — misbehave — where the urban grid ruptures and ‘weeds’ push through and resist their instrumentalization.

Lee has worked across architecture, curation and public history in Singapore and the United States. Her past roles include architectural designer, museum project coordinator, gallery curator and artist. She has contributed to architectural and exhibition design projects, been commissioned to conduct research and write for publications and continues to trace stories and questions around architecture, landscape and visual culture.

ARCH 130 – Introduction to Architecture Theory and Criticism

ARCH 170B – A Historical Survey of Architecture and Urbanism

ARCH 270 – History of Modern Architecture