Desirée Valadares

Dr. Desirée Valadares is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia, with affiliations in Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies. Her research investigates the cultural memory and infrastructural imaginaries of Second World War landscapes in western Canada and former U.S. territories.

EDUCATION

• PhD, University of California, Berkeley
• Master of Architecture, McGill University
• Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Guelph
• Bachelor of Arts & Science, McMaster University

Her scholarship examines:

• Reparative justice through Pacific redress movements
• Settler colonialism and land dispossession
• Bi-national infrastructure maintenance (Alaska Highway)
• Dust as environmental indicator
• Community-based preservation methods
• Historical landscape archaeology

This work intersects with her professional affiliations at the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals and British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects.

RECENT PUBLICATION TRENDS explore:

• Transoceanic migration patterns
• Toxic site remediation
• Transportation corridor governance
• Postcolonial monument interpretation
• Environmental memory practices
• Critical heritage theory

SCIENTIFIC AWARDS

• 2022 SSHRC Insight Development Grant
• 2022 CCA Research Fellowship

RESEARCH AND MENTORSHIP Dr. Valadares supervises MA students in environmental histories, infrastructural studies, and community-engaged research. She emphasizes creative research outputs from architects, designers, and artists.