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Author: seidenbe

May 22, 2025
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Season 5, Episode 10

Posted in Episodes, and Season 5

Using AI to Reclaim and Preserve APIA Heritage

As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms modern life, we’re understanding more about the benefits and tradeoffs of its use in generating content. New alum Paul Kim wrote his master’s thesis about how generative AI (genAI) perpetuates false narratives about Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (APIA), and how communities can use genAI to reclaim those narratives.

In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with Paul about his thesis, Encoding Counter Memories: Artificial Intelligence as a Tool for APIA Community Empowerment. He completed it for his dual master’s degree in heritage conservation and landscape architecture and urbanism.

They discuss ethical concerns like misinformation and data privacy, how bias affects APIA heritage, and how communities can — and must — use it to share their stories and amplify accurate history. Paul is already on the case as a Past Futures Fellow for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP)!

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April 24, 2025
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Season 5, Episode 9

Posted in Episodes, and Season 5

[Encore] Architecture + Advocacy in L.A.’s Sugar Hill

A group of architecture students at the University of Southern California wants to do more than just design buildings. They want to work with communities to “un-design” spatial injustice and leverage the power of residents in shaping their neighborhoods.

In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with students Reily Gibson and Kianna Armstrong about L.A.’s Sugar Hill, a very important neighborhood cut in half by construction of the I-10 Freeway. A nonprofit they co-founded, Architecture + Advocacy, worked with neighborhood partners on a community celebration and a design-build project.

Reily and Willa walk and talk about Sugar Hill’s history and legacy of activism, and Kianna shares how a new generation of architecture students is using heritage conservation (even if they don’t call it that) to help neighborhoods affected by structural racism and gentrification.

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April 3, 2025
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Season 5, Episode 8

Posted in Episodes, and Season 5

Framing History through Photography

Photographer Sally Mann once said, “Photographs open doors to the past, but also allow a look into the future.” Photography is a key component of the historic documentation process. New graduate Sam Malnati (MHC/MUP ’25) delved into photography’s role in the field for her thesis, Contemporary Vision: Photography’s Influence on Perception of Places in the Past. 

In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with Sam about the history of photography and its use in the Historic American Buildings Survey, the differences between film and digital photography for historic documentation, and how researching the thesis helped Sam slow down and look at her world.

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December 12, 2024
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Season 5, Episode 5

Posted in Episodes, and Season 5

 

Everyday Urbanism in L.A.’s Koreatown

In this “Where Are They Now?” episode, we catch up with alum Junyoung Myung (MHC ’15), who followed yet another of many career paths in heritage conservation: research and teaching. His exciting work blends architecture, design, heritage conservation, and technology—from teaching undergrad architects about adaptive reuse, to training AI to identify architectural styles, and much more. He’s also finishing his doctoral dissertation, which explores how generations of Korean immigrants and Korean Americans created a unique ethnic urban landscape in Los Angeles. It builds on his master’s thesis, Values-Based Approach to Heritage Conservation: Identifying Cultural Heritage in Los Angeles Koreatown.

Jun talks with co-host Trudi Sandmeier about working with residents to identify overlooked places of memory and meaning, using digital technology to advance the field, and inspiring the next generation of architects to embrace heritage conservation.

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University of Southern California