Research interests / activities
I am currently enrolled as a PhD student in an Architecture Department researching the postwar design of exhibition environments—the display of live animals in zoos, and art settings—as conflicted interdisciplinary practices grounded in emerging biological paradigms, social unease about human-animal relations, and Cold War anxiety. By revisiting a disavowed design experiment (which I am calling 'the brutal zoo') in the context of postwar debates about aesthetics, animal behaviour and territories, the research aims to counter normative claims made for 'natural' habitat design, and broaden our historical understanding of the role aesthetic experiences play in influencing the animals we see.