PhD-AECM Dissertation Proposal Presentation: Waku Ken-Opurum
Title: Visualising the Breath of a Region: A Decolonial Transdisciplinary Praxis Exploring the Nexus of Air Quality, Health, and Community Engagement in the Niger Delta Through Art and Environmental Griotship
Name: Waku Ken-Opurum, Ph.D. candidate in Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management (PhD-AECM)
Date: Monday, December 1, 2025
Time: 3:30-5:30pm ET
Location: Remote on Zoom
Dissertation Committee:
Erica Cochran Hameen, PhD (Chair)
Associate Professor
School of Architecture
Carnegie Mellon University
Kristen Kurland
University Professor
Carnegie Mellon University
Kristin Hughes
Professor
School of Design
Carnegie Mellon University
Richard Nisa, PhD
School of Architecture Affiliated Faculty
IDeATe Associate Dean & Program Director, Sustainability
Carnegie Mellon University
Ralph Muehleisen, PhD
Chief Building Scientist
Argonne National Laboratory
Abstract:
Air pollution in the Niger Delta represents a severe environmental and public health crisis driven by decades of extractive industrial activity, infrastructural collapse, and systemic marginalization. Despite chronic co-exposure to indoor and outdoor pollutants from gas flaring, artisanal refining, generator use, and waste burning, the region suffers from profound "data apartheid," where communities lack access to reliable air quality information necessary for protection, advocacy, and policy change. This dissertation introduces environmental griotship (gree-oh-ship), a transdisciplinary framework that integrates low-cost sensing, Indigenous knowledge, participatory design, and narrative-based dissemination to address these gaps.
The research unfolds in three acts. Act I (Breathing Devices) develops and validates affordable wearable sensors through laboratory calibration and field colocation. Act II (Breathing Together) trains community "griots" (gree-ohs) to collect air quality data while integrating embodied observations, oral histories, architectural reflections, and spatial journaling through co-designed workbooks and sense-making workshops. Act III (Breathing Stories) transforms community-collected findings into an interactive 3D design for a public exhibition, developed in collaboration with Human-Computer Interaction researchers to evaluate whether narrative and multisensory engagement enhance comprehension and memorability.
A key contribution of this work is a community-embedded model for building data confidence in low-resource settings. By grounding technical accuracy in participatory validation, contextual interpretation, and community control, the proposed framework produces hybrid datasets suitable for future epidemiological studies, exposure assessments, and longitudinal health research in settings with sparse monitoring infrastructure.
Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates how sensors, storytelling, and situated knowledge can co-produce credible environmental data, strengthen environmental health literacy, and support community-led pathways toward environmental justice and resilient built environments.