William Shivers

Rebuilding Periphery: Climate and Cultural Resilience under American Imperialism

William is a Ph.D student in the Constructed Environment, where he is currently researching the intersection of climate and cultural resilience in American peripheral landscapes. His work positions a new “cultural reparation ecology” to critique and expand how nature-based solutions and climate adaptation in the United States are valued and how they can address key issues of environmental, social, and cultural exploitation and injustice. This research focuses on mass tree planting strategies and how a culturally inclusive approach can work towards a pluralistic national adaptation that champions cultural and ecological heterogeneity. He specifically focuses on building these methods through culturally and environmentally significant species in the US Virgin Islands, Hawai’i, and Guam.

William received a Master of Landscape Architecture with distinction from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design where he received the ASLA award of Merit for academic excellence. He also received a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Louisiana State University where he was awarded the ASLA award of Honor for academic excellence as well. His work has been published in Places Journal, Landscape Architecture Frontiers, and Landscape Architecture Magazine. He has presented internationally at the Conference on Landscape Architecture, Responsive Cities Symposium, International Conference on Social Sciences, among others, and been a critic at the GSD, Kent State University, Colorado State University, and UVA. William most recently has worked with the World Monuments Fund on cultural landscape work in West Africa. His practice experience includes working with Merritt/Chase, Stoss Landscape Urbanism, and Design Workshop on domestic and international projects with public and private clients. His work has been awarded nationally and locally from the American Society of Landscape Architects, World Landscape Architecture, and Architect Magazine.