Dr. Richard Nisa

Biography

Richard Nisa is an Associate Dean and Program Director for Sustainability in the Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) program at Carnegie Mellon University. Nisa is an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Architecture, teaching courses on ethics, urbanism, and infrastructural history theory. His research focuses on the intersections of architecture and technology in the context of power dynamics from the late 20th to the early 21st centuries. Nisa is currently working on a book project titled 'The Global Capture Chain: Infrastructures of U.S.-Managed Military Detainment from Truman to Trump,' which explores the relationship between intimate battlefield experiences and broader transnational systems influenced by international law and the automation of low-cost air travel within the framework of U.S. military and carceral practices. Nisa's work has been published in noted venues including the Journal of Historical Geography and the Radical History Review. He is recognized as an award-winning teacher, actively committed to transformative pedagogies that engage public-facing methodologies. His teaching experience includes leading courses on mass surveillance and the political economy of housing with the state's governor. Nisa holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University School of Architecture.

Research Interests

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