Ph.D. in Architecture Student Profiles

DOCTORAL STUDENT PROFILES

Headshot of Alexandar Bala

ALEXANDER BALA

Alexander Bala is a PhD candidate in Architectural History at the University of Texas at Austin and current American Councils Title VIII Research Fellow in Warsaw, Poland. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Tech and Master of Arts in Architectural History from UT Austin. Bala was a Fulbright Research Fellow in Warsaw during the 2018/2019 academic year and a Visegrád Research Fellow at the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives in Budapest, Hungary during the 2024 Spring semester. His doctoral dissertation examines the debates that revolved around the humanization of modernist architecture within the Art and Research Unit at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in the 1950s, relative to their philosophical extensions within the broader intellectual context of post-war humanism. Specifically, it analyzes how those debates manifested through the competing conceptions of space of Jerzy Sołtan and the couple, Oskar and Zofia Hansen.

 

Dissertation: "Form Follows Praxis: Modernist Architecture’s Humanist Renascence at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, 1945-1965"

Dissertation Committee: Chris Long (UTSOA, advisor), Dr. Danilo Udovički-Selb (UTSOA Emeritus), Dr. Bryan Norwood (UTSOA), Dr. Alla Vronskaya (external, Kassell), Dr. Łukasz Stanek (external, U Michigan)

Melanie R. Ball

MELANIE R. BALL

Melanie R. Ball is a Ph.D. Candidate in architectural history at the UT Austin School of Architecture. Broadly, her research examines political, racial, and economic implications of housing's centrality to visual representations of a "better future" in the twentieth century. Her dissertation traces a relationship between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s industrial housing construction program, Operation Breakthrough (1969–1974), and the codification of “urban crisis” as a narrative. Centering visual media produced in conjunction with Breakthrough, the dissertation reveals how a technical mission for volume production of housing operated as a publicity campaign—a colorblind solution to “crisis” that affirmed the sustained interdependence of agendas for building housing with agendas for building nation.

Melanie’s doctoral research has been supported by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Dumbarton Oaks Garden and Landscape Studies Program, UC Berkeley Environmental Design Archives, and the Rockefeller Archive Center. She earned her Master of Arts in modern and contemporary art history with a specialization in design history from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in the history of art and architecture from University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dissertation Title: ‘More Than Houses’: Operation Breakthrough and the Evolution of Urban Crisis
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Bryan E. Norwood (UTSOA advisor), Dr. Mirka Beneš (UTSOA), Dr. Charles L. Davis II (UTSOA), Dr. Akira Drake Rodriguez (external reader, U Penn)

Courses taught: ARC342R, Housing for Tomorrow: A History (Spring 2025)

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Mónica del Arenal

Mónica del Arenal’s Ph.D. research focuses on Viceregal Mexico, addressing bullrings in New Spain, their function in city- and place-making, and their relationship with the extensive transpacific/transatlantic exchanges during the colonial period. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a master’s in Restoration of Monuments of Architecture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, in Barcelona; she has an Advanced Diploma in Historic Buildings, Collections, and Sites: Sustainable Strategies for Conservation, Management, and Use, from University College London. 

Mónica has curated two major exhibitions: Mid-century Modern Architecture in Guadalajara (MoMo GDL-MX), and Arquitectos y Muralistas. Casas Estudio del Siglo 20 en México, held at the Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo. She is editor of the Architectural Guide of Guadalajara-Arquine, author of the book Guadalajara, co author of a series of modern architecture publicationsand producer of the documentary Los Constructores de la Guadalajara Moderna.

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Gulce Erincik

Gulce Erincik is a Ph.D. student in Sustainability at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul and a Master of Science in Architecture from Bilkent University in Ankara. With a background in architecture and architectural technologies, Gulce focuses on sustainable building practices, particularly their application in urban environments. Her research examines how design strategies influence the operational and embodied carbon footprints of multifamily residential buildings and explores ways to integrate low-environmental impact design approaches into architectural practice. She advances her work by employing various methods and tools, such as building energy modeling, climate simulations, parametric design, and data analysis.

Faculty advisor: Dr. Juliana Felkner

Rashmi Gajare

RASHMI GAJARE

Currently focusing on the use of 3D digital documentation and modeling for historic preservation in earthquake-prone zones with diverse geographical, cultural, and economic backgrounds, Rashmi Gajare examines intersections of emerging technologies and historic preservation. Her broader interests lie in understanding commonalities or disparities of using ‘acultural’, synthetic, and ‘neutral’ technologies in the fundamentally subjective field of historic preservation practice, specifically with differences between 'western' 'colonial' 'post-WWII' and 'non-western' indigenous' preservation theories. Her analyses comment on the social, philosophical, and practical aspects of ideas such as Jirnoddhaara; culturally varying concepts of progression of time; patina of age; global codification of conservation rules and their influence on preservation practices in the west and the global south, focusing on India.

Mumini Damilola Osuolale Headshot

Mumini Damilola Osuolale

Mumini Damilola Osuolale is a Ph.D. student in Sustainability at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. His research focuses on a multi-dimensional analysis of Net Zero strategies, classifying approaches and evaluating their effectiveness across various sectors. His work aims to advance architectural sustainability by developing scalable framework for implementing and assessing Net Zero solutions in diverse built environments. He holds a Bachelor of Technology and Master of Technology in Architecture from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. He also has a Master of Science in Project Management from Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, bringing a unique global perspective to his studies. Osuolale’s professional experience as a teaching assistant, architectural designer in Nigeria, and project coordinator in the UK has deepened his understanding of sustainable design challenges across different contexts.

Parastou Naghibi Rad Headshot

Parastou Naghibi Rad

Parastou Naghibi Rad is a Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture in the Sustainable Design program. Her research focuses on the interdisciplinary exploration of neuroarchitecture, sustainable design and human-centered architecture. Her work investigates the impact of architectural features, such as building materials, visual forms and environmental conditions on human emotions, cognitions, thermal comfort and overall well-being. She is particularly interested in optimizing indoor environments to enhance occupants’ satisfaction and well-being, with an emphasis on integrating neuroscience and sustainable practices. Her studies and research also delve into the cognitive, emotional and physiological responses of occupants to built environments, emphasizing the importance of material effects and thermal comfort in designing healthier, and more sustainable environments.

Faculty advisor: Dr. Aleksandra Jaeschke

Irina Rivero

Irina Rivero

Irina Rivero’s work explores the intersections of the built environment, its narratives, the sociopolitical changes related to landscapes of dependency, and its crosspollinations. Her dissertation topic—Paraguayan Architecture: Indigeneity and the Materialization of Local Culture, 1983-2003—locates the colonial associations of disciplinary references to indigenous material culture and spatial practices in Paraguayan architecture. Her research expands upon the academic interpretation of Paraguayan architecture culture through a study of the representation of the indigenous peoples and the problems of countercultural indigenous histories.

Irina holds a Master of Arts in architectural history from UT Austin, a Master in Architecture and Urban Culture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya/CCCB, and a Bachelor in Architecture also from UTSOA. She has practiced architectural design, assisted teaching architectural history and studio, and organized and directed experimental workshops on architecture and related fields.

Dissertation: "Paraguayan Architecture: Indigeneity and the Materialization of Local Culture, 1983-2003"
Dissertation Committee: Charles L. Davis II (UTSOA co-advisor), Fernando Lara (U Penn co-advisor), Mirka Beneš (UTSOA), Fabiola Lopez-Durán (Rice U), Tara Dudley (UTSOA).

Daishi Shigemoto

Daichi Shigemoto

Daichi Shigemoto is a Ph.D. candidate in architectural history at the School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in architecture at Waseda University, Tokyo. He was also a special student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he began his study on the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was from Wisconsin. His doctoral dissertation titled “Hideto Kishida: Mediator between Modernism and Japanese-ness in Architecture” examines the backgrounds from which post-World War II Japanese architecture epitomized by the works of several important architects such as Kunio Maekawa (1905–1986986) and Kenzo Tange (1913–2005) emerged, through the life and work of the architect Hideto Kishida (1899–1966). 

Dissertation Committee: Dr. Christopher Long, Dr. Danilo Udovički-Selb, Dr. Mirka Beneš, Dr. Kevin Nute (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa), and Dr. Ken Tadashi Oshima (University of Washington).

Susan Singh Headshot

Susan Singh

Susan Singh is a Ph.D. student in Architectural History at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. Her research interest lies at the intersection of the history of construction and building technology and preservation of twentieth-century modernism. She enjoys exploring the origins and evolution of innovation within the modern built environment, especially structural expression in the material of concrete. In July 2024 she received a travel award to visit Italy to learn concrete conservation and educational techniques with the Pier Luigi Nervi Foundation. Her aim is to create an interpretive history program to educate the American public on the significant role technological ingenuity has played in shaping the nation’s contemporary built environment. Susan holds a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dissertation Committee: Michael Holleran (UTSOA advisor), Chris Long (UTSOA), Bryan Norwood (UTSOA), Bruce Hunt (History Department), Thomas Leslie (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

Ulli Headshot

Ulrike Unterweger

Ulrike (Ulli) Unterweger is a doctoral student in Architectural History at the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. She studied Art History and Russian at the University of Vienna and the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow. She previously worked for the Austrian artist Franz West and the Franz West Foundation. Her research explores histories of the built environment through different methodological lenses that challenge traditional disciplinary boundaries and incorporate new methodologies in cultural studies. Her dissertation project titled “Claims from the Margins: Group Activism and Strategies of Place-making in Vienna’s Built Environment, 1870-1938” focuses on the ways in which social, political, and cultural movements (re)interpreted the meaning of architecture and urban spaces in Central Europe around the turn of the twentieth century. She was awarded a Donald D. Harrington Graduate Fellowship (2018-2023) for her doctoral studies at UT Austin.