Undergraduate Alumni

Aniston Breslin

Certificate Class of 2018
History of Art
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
Siteworks – Understanding Place through Design and Performance (core studio)
Pictorial Representation in the Roman World, Classic C175
A Historical Survey of Architecture and Urbanism, Architecture 170 

Since my focus in History of Art was Architecture, I was intrigued by the Global Urban Humanities Initiative and wanted to learn more about urban life through the program’s interdisciplinary approach. I participated in the undergraduate certificate program in order to expand my knowledge of urban humanities by working closely with a team of students from a variety of majors. I was very interested in taking Siteworks: Understanding Place through Performance and Design for the opportunity to work with the professors, who came from theater, architecture, and city planning, and to explore the concepts including public space and the commons. 

Nero Dotson

Certificate Class of 2019
Economics 
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
New Orleans: Historical Memory and Urban Design (core studio)
History of Race and Ethnicity in the North American West, ETHSTD 10AC 
Community and Economic Development, CYPLAN 113B

“I am a second-year undergraduate majoring in Economics.  During the 2018 fall semester, I enrolled in the City Planning 13B: Community and Economic Development course because I was interested in the subject matter, which integrated several areas, such as public policy. After exploring different topics, our discussion on ways that private companies can contribute to low-income communities captured my interest in the growing role of businesses and their relationship with the communities in need. Inspired by my learning experience, I am pursuing a Global Urban Humanities Certificate.”

Claire Kosthoryz

Certificate Class of 2019
Urban Studies 
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
New Orleans: Historical Memory and Urban Design (core studio)
Los Angeles: City of Angels, AMERSTD 102
Urban Design: Building and Place-Making, CYPLAN 140

Emily Lempko

Certificate Class of 2020
History
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
East Bay Revolution: Urban Spaces of Protest and Counterculture Practice (core studio)
The Age of the City: The 20th Century to the Present, HISTORY 134B
Intro to City Planning, CYPLAN 110

Amy Loo

Certificate Class of 2018
Political Science
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
Siteworks – Understanding Place through Design and Performance (core studio)
Reading Chinese Cities, Chinese 158
The Social and Cultural Processes in Architecture & Urban Design, Architecture 110

While studying immigration policy, I realized how the methods and perspectives of political science could not answer essential questions about the everyday life experiences of immigrants. I became interested in how people, specifically displaced populations, perceive the space and environment around them. What makes them feel lost in an urban environment? What makes them gain a sense of belonging and feel at home? The GUH program allowed me to explore these questions with interdisciplinary methods and perspectives.

Tiffany Meng

Certificate Class of 2018
Urban Studies
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
Siteworks – Understanding Place through Design and Performance (core studio)
Urban Sociology, Sociology 136
Advanced Topics in Urban Studies, City Planning 190

In my first three years of work as an Urban Studies major, I felt my understanding of cities was somehow incomplete. My recent participation in the GUH Certificate Program truly enlarged my understanding as it combines academic approaches with real-world experience–placemaking through collaborative site-specific work to bring spirituality into the public realm. Public spaces are the ideal sites of artistic intervention; they are the window into a city’s soul. I hope more students will join and share the excitement of discovery with our community. Through active engagement it’s possible to add magic to mundane everyday places. You can create a sense of realism that is hard to achieve with conventional wisdom.

Daniel Olea

Certificate Class of 2019
English
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
New Orleans: Historical Memory and Urban Design (core studio)
Introduction to Visual Thinking, ART 8
Critical Studies in Education, EDUC 190AC

As a first-generation Latino transfer student, Daniel Olea has demonstrated his tenacious nature by recently earning his Bachelors in English, completing a minor in Education, and receiving the Global Urban Humanities certificate, all while pursuing a career in music as a DJ. With creativity at his core, the self-proclaimed multipotentialite, asserts that “while English ranges from the feasible to the more abstract, harnessing the ability to read and write allows us the opportunity to adapt and grow.” In this process, he has recognized the many interdisciplinary aspects of his field and for that reason wishes to not be bound to a single discipline; hence, why he continuously explores everything and anything related to the world. 

Angela Phung

Certificate Class of 2019
Art Practice 
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
New Orleans: Historical Memory and Urban Design (core studio)
Global Perspectives in Contemporary Art, ART 119 
Intro to Environmental Design, ED 1

“Multi-disciplinary artist, budding educator, and postcard enthusiast. Isang bagsak, dalawang bagsak.”

Marithza Quiroz

Certificate Class of 2020
American Studies
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
Mapping America, AMERSTD H110
Data Arts, ART 23AC
California Architecture, ARCH 177

Hannah Ricker

Certificate Class of 2018
Development Studies
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
Siteworks – Understanding Place through Design and Performance (core studio)
Postcolonial Geographies, Development Studies 150
Special Topics in Design Theory and Criticism, Architecture 139

I graduated in 2018 with a degree in Development Studies, focusing on geography and Southeast Asia. My studies have focused on the way in which macro politico-economic structures shape and are shaped by urban processes, and how an acute attention to urban studies is critical to a multi-scalar lens of development. I will spend this upcoming year in Berlin, where I will research the ways in which Cold War identities were a product and tool of aesthetic imperialism, and how artistic responses organized around the restrictions of East and West.

Sam Siegel

Certificate Class of 2018
Interdisciplinary Studies
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
Special Topics in Architectural Design, Architecture 109
The History of City Planning, City and Regional Planning 200
Berlin and the Twentieth Century, History 167

My interest in cities goes back to 2004 when my older brother and I discovered SimCity 4. That led to my first trip to San Francisco, and to finding a certain public university directly across the bay. I enrolled in the City as Nexus Global Urban Humanities colloquium and realized that I had been moving in a single direction all along: Global Urban Humanities! Now that I have graduated, I don’t know where my path lead in the future, but something tells me I will find many more fascinating cities along the way.

Wesley Tam

Certificate Class of 2020
Geography and Conservation Resource Studies
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
East Bay Revolution: Urban Spaces of Protest and Counterculture Practice (core studio)
Urban Field Study, GEOG 181
Advanced Studies in Urban Studies: Sustainability Mobility, CYPLAN 190

Wesley (he/him/his) studies Geography and Conservation and Resource Studies, two inherently interdisciplinary subjects. He is intrigued by notions of ‘landscape’, particularly as they relate to community resilience and urban green spaces. Global Urban Humanities has given him the opportunity to explore cities as platforms for protest and leadership.

Grace Treffinger

Certificate Class of 2018
Conservation and Resource Studies
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
Sitework – Understanding Place through Design and Performance (core)
Geographic Information Systems, Landscape Architecture C188
Sociology and Political Ecology of Agro-Food Systems, ESPM 155

Edgardo Vazquez

Certificate Class of 2020
Urban Studies
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
East Bay Revolution: Urban Spaces of Protest and Counterculture Practice (core studio)
Internationl Rural Development Policy, ESPM 165
The Urban Community, CYPLAN 118AC

Cherry Wu

Certificate Class of 2020
Individual Major-Urban Experience Design
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
New Orleans: Historical Memory and Urban Design (core studio)
Critical Practices: Peoples, Places, Participation, ART/NWMEDIA C166
Urban Design and Placemaking, CYPLAN 140

Brandon Yung

Certificate Class of 2019
Urban Studies
Global Urban Humanities Initiative courses taken:
New Orleans: Historical Memory and Urban Design (core studio)
Thinking through Art and Design at Berkeley, L&S 25 
Design and Activism, ED 4A

“Brandon Yung is a first year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley majoring in Urban Studies. Hailing from Los Angeles, Brandon is especially interested in the relationship between inequality and the built environment. He is also a staff reporter on the Daily Californian.”