Charlotte Leib
Links:
Research interests:
Early American history; US history; environmental history; histories of the built environment; landscape history; geography; urban studies; discard studies; plant humanities; environmental justice
Bio:
Charlotte is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of History and member of the Environmental Humanities and Environmental History cohorts. Her work focuses on histories of the built environment, landscape architecture, and the perceptions, representations and repercussions of environmental and technological change in North America during the seventeenth through twentieth centuries.
Originally trained as a landscape architect, Charlotte holds a Master in Landscape Architecture degree and a Master in Design Studies in the History and Philosophy of Design and Media degree with Distinction from Harvard University. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with Certificates in Urban Studies and American Studies from Princeton University in 2013. Her Master’s thesis examining the proto-ecological ambitions and pedagogic underpinnings of several modernist housing projects developed in the US during the 1940’s received the Best Paper on Housing Prize from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies in May 2019.
Charlotte has contributed to the research, public programming and design of various exhibitions on landscape-related topics, including ‘The Bauhaus and Harvard’ at the Harvard Art Museums (Feb. 8–Jul. 28, 2019) and ‘Hudson Rising’ at the New-York Historical Society (Mar. 1–Aug. 4, 2019).
Prior to pursuing a Ph.D. in History, Charlotte worked for various design offices, nonprofits and municipalities, including: SCAPE Landscape Architecture in New York City; the Urban Farming Institute of Boston; and the City of Cambridge Department of Public Works, Urban Forestry Division. She currently works part-time at the landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand, where she helps to advance the firm’s research and equity initiatives and manages the New Haven Studio’s internship program.