Assistant Professor (and Postdoc, Michigan Society of Fellows)
About
Inspired by my work with artists, architects, and urban planners, my first book project Heavy Load-Bearing Modernity: A Cultural Geology of Albert Speer’s Berlin/Germania embeds a charged piece of material into intellectual history: the so-called heavy load-bearing cylinder. (Schwerbelastungskörper). The massive ferroconcrete cylinder is 46 feet tall, has a diameter of 69 feet, and weighs 12,650 tons, which is more than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Statue of Liberty in New York, and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro combined. Underneath it are measurement chambers that go as deep as 60 feet underground. Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, ordered the cylinder to simulate the weight of a gigantic Triumphal Arch projected as the major entrance gate to a completely remodeled Berlin: Germania. This plan capitalized on forced labor, deportation, and large-scale demolition, and was deeply tied into the network of concentration camps. I argue that the heavy load-bearing cylinder, as an engineering blueprint for both fascist imperial fantasies and the modern metropolis, was forged in a crucible of progress, megalomania, and destruction. As such, it is the dialectical emblem of fascist German modernity.
For a glimpse into my realm of ideas:
Podcast: 99% Invisible (~1 million listeners/episode), Episode 616: »The Nazi Block«, with Magnus Brechtken, Michael Richter, Despina Stratigakos, et. al., 99% Invisible, produced by Vivian Le, edited by Joe Rosenberg, mixed by Martín Gonzalez, music by Swan Real, George Langford, and APM, translations by Sara Zarreh Hoshyari Khah (2025) [Spotify]
Chapter (peer-reviewed): »Blood over Soil: Albert Speer’s Heavy Load-Bearing Cylinder, Glacial Till, and Racial Terra-Forming« Grasping Soil: A Syllabus and Essays for the Environmental Humanities, edited by Emily Brownell, White Horse Press (2026)
Syllabus: »Soil as Belonging« with Dotan Halevy, Basil Ibrahim, and Steven Stoll, illustrated by Natasha Russell, web design by Brian Jones (2026; simultaneously published in Grasping Soil: A Syllabus and Essays for the Environmental Humanities, edited by Emily Brownell, White Horse Press)
Article (peer-reviewed): »Towards a Cultural Geology: Merging Material and Conceptual History.« The Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, edited by Jonathon Catlin, jhiblog.org (2025; simultaneously published as entry for »Geology« in Komposita: Contributions to Reinhart Koselleck’s ›Space of Resonance‹)
Talk (English): »Heavy Load-Bearing Modernity: A Cultural Geology of Albert Speer’s Berlin/Germania« at the Society of Fellows, University of Michigan
Talk (German): »Der Schwerbelastungskörper: Ein Ort der materiellen und symbolischen Schwere« (The Heavy Load-Bearing Cylinder: A Space of Material and Symbolic Weight) at Berliner Unterwelten e.V.
In preparation:
Chapter: »A Cultural Geology of Be(long)ing: Ge-schiebe, Ge-schichte, and Ge-wichte.« Feeling German: Sources of Belonging and Unbelonging in the German Speaking World, 1848-2000, edited by Sarah Leonhard, Britta McEwen, and Russell Spinney
Chapter: »Designing a Dead City: ›The Fluid Foundations‹ underneath the ›Eternal Erections‹ of Albert Speer’s Berlin/Germania« From Glory...to Grave?: ›Dead Cities‹ throughout Time and Space, edited by Vyta Pivo and Ismael Byashev
Affiliation(s)
- Faculty Affiliate, Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia
