As a third-year PhD student, I thought to write this reflection on my academic journey and the challenges faced in navigating elite institutions. In the interest of helping future applicants to PhD programs navigate a process that appears opaque from the outside, I share my program experience and the text of my prelim reading list, minor, and major essays. VIEW PUBLICATION >
This personal essay reflects on my experiences growing up in Newark, NJ, and witnessing the city’s stark socioeconomic divides. These experiences inspired my current studies of architecture and urban planning, with a particular focus on systemic inequality in the built environment. I hope to make scholarship accessible, to address historical injustices through genuine community engagement and historical research. VIEW PUBLICATION >
The following statements accompanied my successful application in fall 2020 to the architecture PhD program at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. I received a full scholarship for six years with a graduate student stipend. I share these statements online for future applicants to Michigan or architecture PhD programs in general, in hopes to make the already challenging PhD admissions process at least a little more transparent. VIEW PUBLICATION >
Dear academics,
Our writing sucks. I am a first year PhD student in architecture with interests in urban studies, planning, and U.S. history. There is a problem if I am in your area and I cannot understand our overly-theoretical writing. Reading recent work decreases my desire to follow your path. VIEW PUBLICATION >
A review of Lizabeth Cohen’s book
“Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age.” (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019. 547 pp.)
Winner of the Bancroft Prize in 2020 for the quality of her historical writing VIEW PUBLICATION >
Excerpt from the Common App essay I wrote in 2015. This essay on the experience and love of walking accompanied my successful undergraduate application to Columbia University. VIEW PUBLICATION >
Excerpt from the Common App essay I wrote in 2015. This essay on my childhood experiences and struggles of growing up in the majority-black, inner city of Newark, NJ accompanied my successful undergraduate application to Columbia University. VIEW PUBLICATION >
Essay selected from successful 2014 application to the Telluride Association Summer Program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
In this essay, I reflect on the Roman architect Vitruvius and ask: Rome left a footprint on the built environment. What will our society leave? VIEW PUBLICATION >
