About
We are a group of Harvard students who share diversity not only in the field of design but also in cultural backgrounds. We are lucky to meet and be instructed by professor Hansy Better Barraza, and our amazing graduate research assistants Celeste Martore and Claire Wang in the HGSD spring 2021 course Hidden Figures: The City, Architecture and the Construction of Race and Gender. For the project, we intend to combat the social stereotype and patriarchal mindsets in the design field and also imbue it with our own understandings and reflections.
Transforming the Timeline is a collective, student-led initiative that seeks to reimagine authorship of the built environment. To do so, we recognize and uplift a powerfully diverse set of women who have shaped the world around them through their design work, activism, leadership, art, and personal lives, and deconstruct the traditional categories that pigeonhole people by organizing with more flexible, experimental, and nonhierarchical, and nonpatriarchal elements.
Transforming the Timeline is a collective, student-led initiative that seeks to reimagine authorship of the built environment. To do so, we recognize and uplift a powerfully diverse set of women who have shaped the world around them through their design work, activism, leadership, art, and personal lives, and deconstruct the traditional categories that pigeonhole people by organizing with more flexible, experimental, and nonhierarchical, and nonpatriarchal elements.
Team
(alphabetically)
Anna Carlsson
Gena Morgis
James Ruan 阮军儒
Josías Salvador
Harvard GSD MUP and Harvard Law School JD
Anna (she/her) is a fourth year law and urban planning student from St. Louis, Missouri. She is interested in
how law produces spatial injustices and shapes the built environment, and in how law can be made more visible and accessible to the people. At the law school, she serves as a student advocate with the Tenant Advocacy Project, where she represents public housing tenants and Section
8 recipients.
Anna (she/her) is a fourth year law and urban planning student from St. Louis, Missouri. She is interested in
how law produces spatial injustices and shapes the built environment, and in how law can be made more visible and accessible to the people. At the law school, she serves as a student advocate with the Tenant Advocacy Project, where she represents public housing tenants and Section
8 recipients.
Harvard Graduate School of Design MLA II
Gena (she/her) is a second year landscape architecture student from New York City. Before attending Harvard, Gena was a landscape designer at SCAPE Landscape Architecture, a New York and New Orleans based design studio that combines research and practice to reveal the ecological and cultural potential of the built environment. Over the past four years, Gena’s research interests have spanned the Atlantic and Pacific coasts with a focus on vulnerable urban fabrics and ecosystems.
Gena (she/her) is a second year landscape architecture student from New York City. Before attending Harvard, Gena was a landscape designer at SCAPE Landscape Architecture, a New York and New Orleans based design studio that combines research and practice to reveal the ecological and cultural potential of the built environment. Over the past four years, Gena’s research interests have spanned the Atlantic and Pacific coasts with a focus on vulnerable urban fabrics and ecosystems.
Harvard Graduate School of Design MDes CC
James (he/him) is a first year MDes student
concentrating on critical conservation from Wenzhou, China. James studied urban planning and economics at Peking University before HGSD. James is interested in studying housing issues and tension between governmental policies and people’s needs. He is also concerned with the injustice existing in the built environment and how to protect the disadvantaged’s rights.
James (he/him) is a first year MDes student
concentrating on critical conservation from Wenzhou, China. James studied urban planning and economics at Peking University before HGSD. James is interested in studying housing issues and tension between governmental policies and people’s needs. He is also concerned with the injustice existing in the built environment and how to protect the disadvantaged’s rights.
Harvard College Architecture and Ethnic Studies
Josías Salvador (elle/el) is a second year at Harvard College studying Architecture and Ethnic Studies. Josías is interested in tropical landscapes and sustainable design that is serving of vulnerable communities. Originally from El Salvador and Los Angeles, California, Josías’ work intersects the built environment, land practices, and the Third World.
Josías Salvador (elle/el) is a second year at Harvard College studying Architecture and Ethnic Studies. Josías is interested in tropical landscapes and sustainable design that is serving of vulnerable communities. Originally from El Salvador and Los Angeles, California, Josías’ work intersects the built environment, land practices, and the Third World.
Lillian Mensah
Rachel Much
Robert Nilsen
Shuyun Wu 吴淑筠
Harvard Graduate School of Design MUP
Lillian (she/her) is a second year urban planning student originally from Rhode Island. She is interested in the intersection of art, activism, and design of the built environment. She is particularly interested in designing to build and unbuild systems for vulnerable citizens.
Lillian (she/her) is a second year urban planning student originally from Rhode Island. She is interested in the intersection of art, activism, and design of the built environment. She is particularly interested in designing to build and unbuild systems for vulnerable citizens.
Harvard Graduate School of Design M.Arch I
Rachel (she/her) is an architecture student with a background in Art History. She has research interests in labor, leisure, and historiography.
Rachel (she/her) is an architecture student with a background in Art History. She has research interests in labor, leisure, and historiography.
Harvard Graduate School of Design MDes ULE
Robert (he/him) is a first year Masters in Design Studies (MDes) student curious about the complex relationship between culture, social space, and architecture. Before matriculating to Harvard, he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and received a professional Bachelor of Architecture degree with distinction. His present research builds upon queer ecology to examine material and spatial agencies in the creation of natural queer space.
Robert (he/him) is a first year Masters in Design Studies (MDes) student curious about the complex relationship between culture, social space, and architecture. Before matriculating to Harvard, he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and received a professional Bachelor of Architecture degree with distinction. His present research builds upon queer ecology to examine material and spatial agencies in the creation of natural queer space.
Harvard Graduate School of Design MAUD
Shuyun (she/her), a second year MAUD student from Jiangyin, China, studied urban and rural planning at Southeast University before entering Harvard University. She is interested in topics such as minority demand response and individual de-labeling in the field of planning and design, while keeping a close eye on China's urbanization process, being wary of the rigid application of some practice models, and digging into the neglected issues therein.
Shuyun (she/her), a second year MAUD student from Jiangyin, China, studied urban and rural planning at Southeast University before entering Harvard University. She is interested in topics such as minority demand response and individual de-labeling in the field of planning and design, while keeping a close eye on China's urbanization process, being wary of the rigid application of some practice models, and digging into the neglected issues therein.
@ Spring 2021