This page is part of my doctoral research on Times Square
Learning from Times Square is the “After” of my PhD trajectory: a space where the dissertation stops being a finished object and becomes a set of reusable sensibilities. Rather than summarizing the thesis, this series returns to what Times Square taught me to notice—simultaneity, overload, choreography, friction, and the strange ways a bounded place can keep unfolding. These posts pick up concepts, scenes, and devices from the research and rework them in smaller, more agile formats: notes, fragments, sketches, and methodological reflections that keep the project alive without forcing it into closure.
Turning a traffic light into an epistemological device
What happens if we treat a traffic light not as background infrastructure, but as a device that makes urban reality knowable? Drawing on Actor–Network Theory and fieldwork in Times Square, this paper turns one traffic light into an epistemological tool for disassembling and reassembling city life. By tracing how it coordinates bodies, timings, rules, expectations, and micro-negotiations, I propose “regions of usefulness”: temporary stabilizations through which heterogeneous practices become actionable, without forcing the site into coherence. Access.
Mirrors and Labyrinths
This post introduces my doctoral dissertation, Mirrors and Labyrinths: Learning from Times Square how to make an urban-STS ethnography. Written from and with Times Square after its pedestrianization, it treats the square as a site of simultaneity and multiplicity—many Times Squares inside Times Square. The dissertation is also a formal experiment: a navigable labyrinth oriented by a “kamal,” an instruction table, and cartographic elements that let readers trace multiple routes through stories, reflections, and multimodal materials. Access.