I am a first-year Ph.D. student in Historic Preservation at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) and Institute for Comparative Literature and Society (ICLS). I have graduated from the research-based Master of Environmental Design (MED) program at Yale University and Historic Preservation (Conservation Science) at the University of Pennsylvania.
My broad interests lie in the understanding of the relationship between human beings and cultural heritage through the study of preservation, philosophy, politics, and media. For my master’s thesis at Yale University, I studied the destruction of cultural heritage and global heritage institutional and legal networks during the Syrian Civil War. I also explored the role of various technologies and media (satellite imagery, digital reconstruction, physical replica, terrorist-released photography) in mediating the relationship between heritage and the remote public. For my Ph.D., I am interested in exploring a phenomenological understanding of the human-heritage relationship. In connection with this topic, I want to study material culture and the intellectual history of preservation and their connections to the perception of history, traditions, values, and social norms. Also, I have an interest in literary theory and media studies.
