CoSEP
COLLECTIVE for SOCIO-SPATIAL
& ENVIRONMENTAL PRAXIS
UC DAVIS
NEWS
• New paper out on Agonistic Arrangements • Now Hiring: Undergraduate Lab Assistant.Apply here.
RESEARCH TRACKS AND THEMES
ABOUT
Established in Dec 2023, CoSEP undertakes transdisciplinary, research-driven projects to address the socio-spatial and political nature of designing and governing the built environment to facilitate the fullness of life. CoSEP's projects lie at the intersection of design, technology, governance, and social justice. We are committed to praxis, or the reflective manner of combining theory and practice to achieve and sustain just futures. CoSEP is housed at the University of California, Davis, on the land of the home of the Patwin people.
© Akshita Sivakumar 2023 - 2025
WHO WE ARE
CoSEP—The Collective for Spatial and Environmental Praxis—is a research group focused on creative and critical approaches to addressing the political, socio-spatial, and sociotechnical nature of designing and governing the built environment. Its projects lie at the intersection of design, technology, governance, and social justice. CoSEP is based at the University of California, Davis, housed in the Department of Design.
The team includes:
Glitch /g
Honorary member
Akshita Sivakumar, Ph.D
Director
(she/her)
A designer, architect, and technoscience studies scholar, I am an Assistant Professor of Design at the University of California, Davis. My work lies at the confluence of governance, social movements, technology, and spatiality. My current research project examines how technologies of participation impact the relationship between environmental governance and solidarities within and across the environmental justice movement in California’s efforts toward air pollution mitigation and decarbonization. My in-progress book monograph analyzes the effects of how computing and electronic technologies mediate environmental governance and environmental justice in California. Previously, I practiced as an architect, primarily designing educational institutions and hospitals. I maintain a design practice under the moniker moredustings.
GRAD STUDENTS
- Diego Martinez Fernandez del Castill
- Jordan Blandino
COLLABORATORS
SPECIAL THANKS
CoSEP is grateful for the assistance of:
- Jeffery Farley, Ofelia Viloche Pulido, and Rebecca Velasquez at UC Davis Department of Design Makerspace
- Colin Zyskowski at the UCSD EnVision Arts and Engineering Maker Studio