Elena M'Bouroukounda

Elena M'Bouroukounda is a Doctoral Candidate in Architecture at Columbia GSAPP. Elena researches the mediation of space in the French overseas territories in the Caribbean and Atlantic World in the late 19th and early 20th century and their historical formulations at the margins of multiple spatial boundaries. A primary thread through her research is the multiplicities of temporalities and historical narratives within this region and their transmission to and deformation in European metropoles. To this, her research mobilizes a range of visual records, including print materials that register the successive reconstructions of the region. An interest in the ephemerality of material records throughout the Caribbean ultimately grounds her research into the intersection of geography, ecology, and architecture.

At Columbia University, Elena is a Provost Diversity Fellow. Before beginning the Ph.D. Program, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Ball State University in 2017, where she studied and minored in French language, and a master of Architecture degree from Princeton University’s School of Architecture in 2020, where she was awarded a Suzanne Kolarik Underwood Prize for design excellency.