Dauphin Romersa

Title of Program: Urban Ecology with an Application in Sculpture

E-mail Address: dromersa@vols.utk.edu

Hometown: Nashville/Brooklyn

Year: Senior

Anticipated Graduation Date: Spring 2023

Description of Program: My college scholars program has morphed from material ecology towards a concentration of urban materials. I am very interested in infrastructure and how it impacts varying ecosystems. I’ve taken sustainable landscape management, urban ecology, geology and a few other classes in those areas. In these classes I have learned how society interacts with the natural world through economics, aesthetics and politics, exploring how different ecosystems are affected by human impact. I then take these concepts and find a cross road between them and sculpture. I explore creating and transforming urban ecology into three dimensional art forms. Using space and form, I’ve so far created My World In Concrete, Creek Bed, Past Civilizations and Home Suburbia, which can be found later in this proposal. Looking at how humans have changed ecology through infrastructure, I then take sculpture to explore the changing of urban environments due to human impact.

Departmental Emphases: Art Department, Forestry Department, Plant Sciences Department

Faculty Mentor: Jason Brown

Plans after graduation (career, graduate/professional school, etc.):I would like to get certified in Welding after graduation and then go to graduate school for sculpture. For a career, I would like to work with the skills I’ve learned in Material Science, Sculpture and Biology to create sustainable materials that could better wasteful material production.

Other Academic Interests: I really enjoy welding and metal fabrication.

Research Experiences or Internships: I have interned at an interior design firm in NY. I taught at an elementary school while I was studying abroad in Florence, Itlay. I interned at an environmental material science company in Knoxville, TN.

Part-time employment; Hobbies; Campus Clubs/Activities: I currently work at Vida and The Vault as a bar back.