Nature is an abstract concept with no universal definition—for example, some see a city park as nature, while others disagree. Definitions vary from physical elements (e.g., plants, animals, landscapes) to broader systems of growth and change. Disagreements arise over human-altered environments, wilderness, and spiritual significance. Much of the existing literature is limited by its focus on Western perspectives, highlighting the need for diversity. This project investigates the underlying reasons why individuals’ definitions of nature differ. In particular, I focus on less agreed upon elements, or “gray areas” (e.g., a tree between concrete or a playground structure in a park) of what constitutes nature, and seek to determine whether these differences are associated with culture, spirituality, and religion. Fifteen University of Washington students, representing diverse cultural, spiritual, and religious backgrounds, were selected from a screener sample (N=180) to participate in interviews featuring a sorting activity with nature-related terms, photos, and phrases. Throughout this activity, questions are posed to delve deeper into the nuances of "gray areas" pertaining to nature, and to understand the factors influencing these perceptions. Additional questions circle back to participants' cultural backgrounds, spirituality, and religion to provide a comprehensive understanding of how these factors influence the individual's definitions of nature. Preliminary results reveal differences in how individuals categorize phrases, words, and photos as “nature,” “not nature,” or “unsure.” Findings also suggest that understandings of nature are shaped by religious affiliations, influencing how people perceive and relate to natural environments. Identified themes, perspectives on gray areas, and connections with cultural, religious, and spiritual beliefs will be presented. Understanding how cultural, spiritual, and religious affiliations shape perceptions of nature is essential for interpreting nature-related research, informing policy, and enhancing environmental management.

In spring of 2023, the United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published an alarming report about the impacts of loneliness in America, significantly labeling loneliness as an “epidemic” of fatal impact. As a mitigation technique, Dr. Murthy advised a national response of several steps, with the first one being to improve existing local social infrastructure, such as libraries and parks. To better understand how this mitigation technique can help reduce loneliness rates, my research aims to ask: Is the number of social infrastructures in a neighborhood predictive of loneliness in vulnerable populations in Seattle? To answer this question, I am composing a composite loneliness index scale based on 13 vital social factors, measured in the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which have been shown to be predictive of loneliness. I am then mapping each Seattle census tract’s loneliness categorical rating, as well as libraries (from a Seattle Public Library dataset) and parks (from a Seattle Parks and Recreation dataset) to understand whether proximity to these social infrastructures can predict a lower score on this new scale. The broader aim of this project is to assess the spatial relationship of social infrastructure and loneliness in a major city so that public officials can identify vulnerable locations where social infrastructure is needed to address this epidemic. Ultimately, my goal is for this project to be replicated in other major cities so that other city governments can identify the geographies that are more prone to loneliness in their city and enact appropriate mitigation responses.

Seattle’s housing crisis has been a central issue in local politics as it has intensified over the past decade. Stringent zoning restrictions, rising construction costs, and a rapidly growing, high-income workforce have worsened the housing crisis, making challenges evident to many Seattle residents. A key player is Amazon, whose presence and expansion in the heart of Seattle have spurred opportunities while simultaneously worsening challenges. Although Amazon initially maintained a distance from political involvement, its opposition to the 2018 Head Tax—designed to fund affordable housing—marked a pivotal shift in its civic engagement. After successfully lobbying to repeal the tax and attempting to influence City Council elections, Amazon faced public backlash, prompting a strategic pivot toward philanthropy. My research question is: How has Amazon’s response to political and regulatory pressures influenced its philanthropic approach through the Housing Equity Fund? This paper examines Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund, a $2 billion initiative to finance affordable housing in Seattle, Washington D.C., and Nashville. I analyzed local and national media coverage and interviewed community stakeholders—including academics, housing nonprofit professionals, and developers connected to Amazon. The findings suggest that while Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund offers essential capital for housing development, its structure excludes the lowest-income populations most affected by Seattle’s affordability crisis—those who would have benefited from the 2018 Head Tax Amazon opposed. Moreover, the initiative allows Amazon to represent itself as a responsible neighbor while continuing to resist direct taxation and government-led housing solutions. Ultimately, I highlight the implications of private sector influence in public affairs, raising questions about accountability and the repercussions of corporate involvement in societal issues.

This research aims to address the lack of qualitative inquiry into the lived effects of banishment zones to address street sex work in urban criminalized contexts. Sex work is highly stigmatized, with stigma being the primary driver of discrimination, poor health, and harm to mental health for sex workers (Bateman, 2021; Lazarus et al., 2012; Armstrong, 2019). Relatedly, spatial exclusion through banishment zones renders the lives of the most vulnerable more precarious, also harming mental well-being (Becket and Herbert, 2010). The Seattle City Council recently reintroduced legislation to create a Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP) zone in Seattle, WA along Aurora Avenue as a punitive measure to curb street prostitution occurring in public spaces. If buyers of sex, pimps, or street sex workers enter this 60-block zone, they can be arrested for violating a SOAP order and face incarceration for up to a year, and fined up to $5,000. Although the legislation seeks to target the buyers and solicitors of the sale of sex, the “end demand” approach perpetuates harm, conspiring that “immodest” women are the cause of social ills (Bateman, 2021). This study proposes a qualitative research design employing semi-structured interviews with community members involved with organizations supporting Seattle’s street sex workers to explore how the reintroduction of the SOAP legislation is felt by the affected sex workers. The proposed research seeks to fill the existing gap in understanding the confluence of spatial exclusion and street sex work within a criminalized context like Seattle, WA. 

This project explores the geography of social dance spaces (such as nightclubs) and their geographic and social responses to gentrification. Social dance spaces serve as critical sites for empowerment, self-expression, and the embodiment of identity, particularly for systematically marginalized communities, including queer and BIPOC individuals. By exploring the spatial distribution and socio-cultural significance of these venues, this research seeks to contextualize how these spaces contribute to and are affected by the gentrification and neighborhood change since the turn of the century. Through a combination of historical contextualization and qualitative interviews, the study emphasizes how life surrounding the outside of the gathering spaces, shapes the life inside these spaces. This methodology will not only showcase the physical geography of the locations in response to changes in the city over time, but also the internal meanings assigned to the spaces while these changes are happening. By looking at both the internal and external geography of these gathering spaces through ethnographic analysis, I will be able to induce information on how this approach reveals the ways in which the geographies of dance spaces both reflect and challenge dominant urban narratives, highlighting their role as counter-hegemonic sites of resistance and identity formation. By situating these venues within their broader historical and geographic context, the research provides insight into how urban spaces intersect with narratives of inclusion, power, and community belonging.

Art has long been a cornerstone for revolution. Whereas there are many narratives about artistic interventions in the established norms and systems of oppression within society, there has been less investigation of how the values held within artistic spaces inspire revolutionary change. Artistic spaces produce different modes for thinking about art, its function, and how to create space for its production by all people. I researched these norms within the context of Dutch art cooperatives that emerged from squatting movements in the 1960s and 70s. My research gave me an understanding of Dutch anarchist frameworks and their implications for creating new forms of working environments that prioritize community over capital. In Seattle, I constructed an ethnography to find different values in artistic communities through interviews and experiences in those spaces. I used my research in artistic spaces to map the values held and record how those values implicate different structural frameworks. My main question is how artistic spaces produce different structures that allow for interventions into systems of oppression and to what extent they open opportunities for revolutionary change and individual growth. I measured these through qualitative findings through interviews to find the varying values held within a community and how those are associated with organizational structure. As I continue my research throughout the winter and spring, I anticipate finding the level of collectivity and revolutionary modes of thinking to be based on the organization’s histories within the arts. These findings will implicate how artistic communities vary based on geographic location and the historical norms of that community. The findings will further provide a basis for future understandings of how the arts can create spaces that allow for revolutionary questioning of norms within Seattle and beyond through a historical narrative.