Elaine Stokes

Elaine is an educator and landscape architect who studies the socio-cultural and narrative implications of North American infrastructure. Her research explores the riverine corridors of the Upper Mississippi River, focusing specifically on dams constructed on sites recognized as sacred land by the Dakota and Ojibwe nations. Her work considers storytelling as a critical method deployed by both federal agencies and indigenous communities to explore new infrastructural imaginaries. This research is situated within the theoretical frameworks of water rights, indigenous sovereignty, river infrastructural history, landscapes of memory, and contemporary territorial landscape practice.

Elaine has spent several years in practice, first at Stoss Landscape Urbanism and then at Sasaki. She has taught a series of studios and seminars in several graduate programs, most recently at the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Minnesota.