Documentary Photography & Film, and Scholarship
at the Intersection of Visual and Cultural Studies

My research and creative practice examine how visual media function as spatial instruments in the production of racialized space. In my dissertation project, Racial-Spatial Aesthetics: Racialized Visualities and the Politics of Space, I develop the concept of racial-aesthetic projects to describe how images and aesthetic forms—across journalism, architecture, film, and urban design—do not simply represent space, but actively participate in delineating belonging, regulating access to resources, and shaping racialized imaginaries of futurity.

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Drawing on archival research, visual analysis, and collaborative media production, my work traces how these visual operations are embedded within broader histories of racial capitalism, colonialism, and urban development. At the same time, I foreground counter-aesthetic practices—forms of visual and spatial production through which Black, Indigenous, and diasporic communities contest dominant spatial logics and reimagine collective life.

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As a community-based filmmaker and photographer, I collaborate with cultural organizations, grassroots groups, and local residents to produce films, photographic projects, and archival initiatives. These projects function simultaneously as scholarly inquiry, public history, and methodological experimentation, extending my research beyond the written text into visual and participatory forms.

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My work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and presented in film festivals, academic conferences, and museum exhibitions. I have collaborated with organizations including La Peña Cultural Center, Moms4Housing, and the Oakland Museum of California, where I have contributed as a filmmaker, photographer, and curator.

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I am currently based in Oakland, CA, where I continue to develop research-driven, collaborative media projects.