Hannah Ahlblad
Research Interests: History of physical sciences; history of technology; urban sociology; visual representation in science.
Hannah Ahlblad is an A.M. candidate in the History of Science and PhD student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in the Theory and History of Architecture. Her research examines how the conditions of nuclear physics research and design of Cold War national science programs physically reconfigured local environments, geopolitics, and territorial sovereignty. Hannah conducts primary source research in Farsi, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Hebrew, among other languages.
Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Hannah worked as a project architect at Annum Architects (formerly Ann Beha Architects). She taught foundational studios at the University of San Francisco while working as a designer, and continues to serve as a guest juror in architecture and urban planning studios at universities across the country. She has written about the social impact of visible and invisible urban form for Texas Architect Magazine, ArchDaily, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, and The Routledge Handbook of Infrastructure Design. Her research has been supported by the University of Texas Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) and the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR). Hannah holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelors of Arts in Art History and Economics from Wellesley College.
Publications:
“Virtual Gardens: Gendered Space in the History of Afghanistan’s Telecommunications” in The Routledge Handbook of Infrastructure Design, ed. Joseph Heathcott, 1st ed., vol. 1 (Routledge, 2022): pp. 62–75, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003093756-8.
Presentations:
“Curating the Atom: Transnational Exhibits, National Aspirations, and the Making of the Cold War Laboratory” for the panel Laboratories of Concealment: New Perspectives on Postwar Science, Secrecy, and the State, Joint Meeting of the American History of Science Society/European Society of the History of Science (HSS/ESHS), July 2026, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
“Royal-Atomic Romance: The Reciprocal Dependence of Pahlavi Iran and MIT, 1973–1977,” Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), June 2026, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
“The American Institute of Architects Goes Atomic: Architects, Physicists, and Cold War Politics,” Latrobe Society of Architecture Historians Biennial Symposium, March 22, 2026, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
Previous Degrees:
B.A. Art History, Economics minor, Wellesley College
M. Arch – University of Texas at Austin