Kaede

CV
Projects
 Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology—Cambridge, MA, 2026
Master in City Planning
  • Thesis: Bloodlines; or, backmapping a paid blood plasma donation from Houston, Texas (Dr. Erica Caple James, advisor; Dr. Rania Ghosn, reader; Dr. Ishani Saraf, reader)

University of Houston—Houston, TX, 2021
Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design and Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy
  • Thesis: Freeway Architectures of Biopolitical Disobedience (Ziad Qureshi, advisor; Rafael Durán, reader)

Select Research                        

Research Assistant, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning—Cambridge, MA, 2024-2026
  • Supported indigenous Mapuche land claims in Pucón, Chile through power mapping, geolocation of archival material, and identification of precedents for design intervention.
  • Designed and installed an exhibition as part of the Fluvial Amazonian City symposium.

Visiting Researcher, Community Design Resource Center—Houston, TX, 2026
  • Conducted archival research at the Houston History Research Center to inform a forthcoming book chapter on the Urban Renewal period in Houston co-written with CDRC director Susan Rogers.

Visiting Researcher, Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies—New Orleans, LA, 2025
  • Conducted ethnographic observations of 10 counter-history walking tours and interviewed 7 tour guides focused on queer history, sex worker history, Black history, indigenous history, and Voodoo heritage. 
  • Organized and executed an accessibility audit of 100+ self-guided New Orleans Historical tours; facilitated an archival collage workshop to re-envision the platform’s graphic identity.

Select Organizing

Core Organizer, MIT Civil Rights Immersion Trek—Cambridge, MA, 2025-2026
  • Co-organized a 20-participant, 5-day road trip from Atlanta to New Orleans inspired by the Freedom Riders. 
  • Coordinated 2 days of programming focused on queer, working class, and Black histories in New Orleans.  
  • Produced a 5-minute video archiving the trip to uplift local partners’ work and solicit funding in future years.

National Organizer, The Architecture Lobby—Remote, 2019-2025
  • Maintained a working understanding of all efforts across a grassroots organization of 150+ architectural workers advocating for just labor practices and an equitable (built) environment. 
  • Co-created an oral history of 27 design justice organizations as a contribution to the 2025 Biennale di Venezia.

Select Professional Experience

Intern Reporter, Nepali Times—Kathmandu, Nepal, 2026-ONGOING
  • Researching, writing, and editing articles (print and digital) for an English-language newspaper in Kathmandu. 
  • Interviewing scientists and activists about Nepal’s shifting environmental and sociopolitical landscape.
  • Accessibly communicating academic research on climate breakdown and urban planning to a broad audience.

City Planner, New Orleans City Planning Commission—New Orleans, LA, 2025
  • Created and presented detailed zoning and land use reports at biweekly Commission hearings.
  • Developed graphic standards and templates to make planning information accessible to the public.
  • Built relationships with residents through weekly planner-on-duty days and redesigned engagement materials.

Designer, SCAPE Landscape Architecture—New Orleans, LA, 2022-2023
  • Produced materials for 10+ public space projects, from watershed management plans to park master plans.
  • Designed and facilitated public meetings of 100+ attendees as a community engagement lead.
  • Worked with business development staff to prepare project narratives, cover letters, and budget proposals.

Designer, UltraBarrio—Houston, TX, 2021
  • Synthesized research on housing strategies and Texas building codes for a post-disaster housing guidebook.
  • Contributed to an award-winning placemaking toolkit that uses textiles as a bridge heritage and identity.

Design Strategist, Community Designer Resource Center—Houston, TX, 2019-2021
  • Collaborated with residents to execute 10+ neighborhood plans and 5+ public art installations.
  • Translated complex schematics into accessible engagement materials, facilitated public meetings, and collated input from hundreds of residents to inform Mayor Turner’s 2021 letter to TxDOT.

Publications

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Suppression, Speculation, and Prison Plasma Programs.” ContraSTS. [FORTHCOMING]

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “What the Himalaya can learn from the Andes.” Nepali Times, October 1, 2026. https://nepalitimes.com/what-the-himalaya-can-learn-from-the-andes

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Nepal tallies the cost of its disaster.” Nepali Times, September 14, 2026. https://nepalitimes.com/nepal-tallies-the-cost-of-its-disaster

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Early warning about global warming.” Nepali Times, September 11, 2026. https://nepalitimes.com/early-warning-about-global-warming

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Headlines on a climate deadline.” Nepali Times, September 1, 2026. https://nepalitimes.com/headlines-on-a-climate-deadline-international-media-falters-in-linking-nepal-flood-to-climate-crisis

Rogers, Susan, and Kaede Polkinghorne. “Repeating the Past.” In About Streets: Perspectives on Urbanism, Architecture, and Placemaking, edited by Gregory Marinic and Pablo Meninato. Springer Nature Switzerland, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-84231-3_49.

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Patchwork Utopia.” Feature. Texas Architect Magazine, February 3, 2025. https://magazine.texasarchitects.org/2025/02/03/patchwork-utopia/.

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “The Past That Never Was.” In Silt Vol. 2: Entwined, edited by Lucy Corlett, 2025. https://siltmagazine.cargo.site/issue-2

Polkinghorne, Kaede, Adare Brown, Renzo Dagnino, Valerio Franzone. “Lobbying for just labour practices and an equitable (built) environment.” KoozArch, February 5, 2024. https://www.koozarch.com/interviews/lobbying-for-just-labour-practices-and-an-equitable-built-environment. 

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Mapping the Myth.” New York Review of Architecture, November 11, 2023. 

https://nyra.nyc/skyline/dispatches/mapping-the-myth.

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Heart to Heart.” New York Review of Architecture, September 22, 2023. https://nyra.nyc/skyline/dispatches/heart-to-heart. 

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “What Happens at the Margins?” Cite, 2022. 

Polkinghorne, Kaede. “Driving Jensen.” Cite, 2021.

Polkinghorne, Kaede, and Susan Rogers. “Mapping inequity in Houston’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout.” Urban Edge, February 14, 2021. https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/mapping-inequity-houstons-covid-19-vaccination-rollout. 

Further Organizing and Service

Core Organizer, MIT disOrientation—Cambridge, MA, 2025
Departmental Steward, UE Local 256—Cambridge, MA, 2024-2025
Volunteer, Solitary Gardens—New Orleans, LA, 2024
New Orleans Metro Board Member, American Planning Association—New Orleans, LA, 2024
Project Pipeline Mentor, National Organization of Minority Architects—New Orleans, LA, 2023-2024
Fellow, Association for Community Design—Remote, 2023
Committee Member, EDI Committee, Texas Society of Architects—Remote, 2020-2021
Student Representative, College Culture Taskforce, University of Houston—Houston, TX, 2020-2021
Organizer, Stop TxDOT I-45—Houston, TX, 2019-2021

Exhibitions and Workshops

Into the Streets, a queer, anti-racist walking tour [co-creator; facilitator]—New Orleans, LA, 2024-2026
Matiné, a series of film screenings at a not-for-profit gallery [design]—Barcelona, Spain, 2025       
Organizing in the Lobby, a contribution to the Venice Biennale Architettura [co-creator], 2025
Archival Remix, a counter-history collage workshop [creator; facilitator}—New Orleans, LA, 2025
Entwined, a showcase of magazine contributors [design]—Cambridge, MA, 2025
People, Place, Power, a celebration of neighborhoods and people who make them [text]—Houston, TX, 2024
Public Engagement for Public Space, a conference session—Manhattan, KS, 2023
Speculative Fiction for Architecture Workers, a zine workshop [co-creator]—Cambridge, MA, 2023
RE: LAX, a group show [co-creator]—Los Angeles, CA, 2021
Design Agency and the Transportation Megaproject, a conference session [presenter]—Remote, 2021

Awards

Outstanding Master in City Planning Thesis Award, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2026
For the project “Bloodlines; or, backmapping a paid blood plasma donation from Houston, Texas”

Emerson Travel Grant, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2026
For the project “Bloodlines; or, backmapping a paid blood plasma donation from Houston, Texas”

Career Exploration Grant, MIT Office of Graduate Education, 2026
To support a visiting researcher position at the Community Design Resource Center at the University of Houston

Vice Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2024-2026
Awarded to diverse graduate candidates with exceptional academic and research profiles

Summer Research Fellowship, Priscilla King Gray Center for Public Service, 2025
For the project “Noninear Feet: Walking with counter-history tour guides in the French Quarter”
To support a visiting researcher position at the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans

Racially Just Research Initiative Grant, MIT Data + Feminism Lab, 2025
For the project “Noninear Feet: Walking with counter-history tour guides in the French Quarter”

Judith McManus Price Scholarship, American Planning Association, 2025
Provides financial assistance to women and historically underserved students of planning

Nia Becnel Student Leadership Award, University of Houston, 2021
In recognition of initiative, service, and leadership within the College of Architecture and Design

Senior Thesis Honorable Mention: Manifesto, University of Houston, 2021
For the project “Freeway Architectures of Biopolitical Disobedience”