My master’s thesis project, scheduled to be completed in Spring of 2025, is titled “This River is Not A Boundary.” The project has investigated the complex relationships between industrialism, corporate actors, shifting landscapes and shifting municipal boundaries along the River Rouge. A heavily industrialized area in the south of Detroit, the River Rouge corridor is a peripheralized urban landscape. The abundance of municipal boundaries combining along the course of the river has resulted in heavy fragmentation of governance. The ambiguity of urban boundaries, created by decades of societal monotony and the changing landscape, has created an essentially unadministered region where corporations can act unchecked and dump hazardous materials at will. In my thesis, I have so far researched the history, methods, and representations of this landscape. As I continue the thesis into the Spring 2025 semester, I hope to use my project to connect disparate communities that are fragmented by industry, pollution, and political boundaries.

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