Timothy Yoshimura is an archival researcher and critical spatial practitioner with a particular interest in the Japanese American experience through the 20th century wartime incarceration period. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City. Previously, he earned a BSc. in Physics and Mathematics and MA in Digital Media at the University of British Columbia, and later, an MS in Urban Planning at Columbia University GSAPP. There, his thesis reimagined the population and property forfeit from wartime incarceration in Seattle’s Japantown at the block level, using digitized census documents, fire insurance maps, and community guides as bases for GIS operations, ultimately producing a set of interpretive cartographic collages. He aims to supplement this line of research with a study of how traditional Japanese woodcraft practices contributed to diasporic population dynamics in such forms as community coalescence, resilience, and labor solidarity.
He has collaborated on several digital installations, one of which will be included in the forthcoming Seeing Cities exhibition at the National Building Museum. He also held a one-year stint as the climate mapping fellow at Bloomberg Philanthropies. Most recently, he worked as a project coordinator at EverGreene Architectural Arts, contributing to preservation efforts in capitol buildings, theaters, and churches across the country. At present, he serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University GSAPP and is an occasional guest critic at Barnard Urban Studies.
He has collaborated on several digital installations, one of which will be included in the forthcoming Seeing Cities exhibition at the National Building Museum. He also held a one-year stint as the climate mapping fellow at Bloomberg Philanthropies. Most recently, he worked as a project coordinator at EverGreene Architectural Arts, contributing to preservation efforts in capitol buildings, theaters, and churches across the country. At present, he serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University GSAPP and is an occasional guest critic at Barnard Urban Studies.
