Dr. Will Davis

Biography

Will Davis is an architectural historian with a broad interest in plant-human interaction. His recent research has considered the histories of agribusiness, resettlement, resistance, and the plantation system through material records of architecture and land. Davis is the group leader for the SNSF Ambizione project titled "Voyaging Vapors: Plant Histories of Plantation Architectures," which is set to take place from 2024 to 2028, hosted by the Institute of the History and Theory of Art and Architecture (ISA) and the Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies (ISUP), with collaboration from the Professorship of Theory of Urbanization and Urban Environments under Professor Roesler. He completed his PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2021 with a dissertation titled "Palm Politics: Warfare, Folklore, Architecture," which was awarded the David B. Brownlee dissertation prize for outstanding work in architectural history in 2022. Prior to joining USI, Davis held positions at Princeton University, the National University of Singapore, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of San Diego, and Occidental College in Los Angeles. He served as an Associate in the Science, Technology, and Society Cluster at the Asia Research Institute (ARI) of the National University of Singapore and is a contributing editor for the ARDETH Journal in Turin, Italy. Additionally, he is a founding member of ANZA East Africa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Research Interests