About Nushelle de Silva

Nushelle de Silva is a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture at MIT. Her work examines museums, exhibitions, and the mediation of visual culture by international organizations in the twentieth century.

Nushelle de Silva is a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her work examines museums and exhibitions, and how the dissemination of visual culture is politically mediated by international organizations in the twentieth century.

NBN Episodes hosted by Nushelle:

Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler, "Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

December 28, 2023

Open Plan

Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler

Albeit inspired by a progressive vision of a working environment without walls or hierarchies, the open plan office has come to be associated with som…

Edward S. Cooke, "Global Objects: Toward a Connected Art History" (Princeton UP, 2022)

December 6, 2022

Global Objects

Edward S. Cooke

A bold reorientation of art history that bridges the divide between fine art and material culture through an examination of objects and their uses art…

Reinhold Martin, "Knowledge Worlds: Media, Materiality, and the Making of the Modern University" (Columbia UP, 2021)

March 25, 2022

Knowledge Worlds

Reinhold Martin

What do the technical practices, procedures, and systems that have shaped institutions of higher learning in the United States, from the Ivy League an…

Kristina Wilson, "Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design" (Princeton UP, 2021)

February 22, 2022

Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body

Kristina Wilson

In the world of interior design, mid-century Modernism has left an indelible mark still seen and felt today in countless open-concept floor plans and …

Craig Robertson, "The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)

August 20, 2021

The Filing Cabinet

Craig Robertson

The history of how a deceptively ordinary piece of office furniture transformed our relationship with information The ubiquity of the filing cabinet i…

Amy D. Finstein, "Modern Mobility Aloft: Elevated Highways, Architecture, and Urban Change in Pre-interstate America" (Temple UP, 2020)

June 2, 2021

Modern Mobility Aloft

Amy D. Finstein

In the first half of the twentieth century, urban elevated highways were much more than utilitarian infrastructure, lifting traffic above the streets;…

Daniel A. Barber, "Modern Architecture and Climate: Design Before Air Conditioning" (Princeton UP, 2020)

January 6, 2021

Modern Architecture and Climate

Daniel A. Barber

Modern Architecture and Climate explores how leading architects of the twentieth century incorporated climate-mediating strategies into their designs,…

Jennifer S. Light, "States of Childhood: From the Junior Republic to the American Republic, 1895-1945" (MIT Press, 2020)

November 4, 2020

States of Childhood

Jennifer S. Light

A number of curious communities sprang up across the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: simulated cities, states, and n…