Archaeology
Hi there! I’m Naz from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I am a first-year doctoral candidate in Anthropology, specializing in Archaeology, under the tutelage of Dr. Sissel Schroeder and Dr. Fumi Iuzuka. My interests lie in traditional water management, historical ecology, and decolonizing cultural resource management, tangible and intangible.
I also have developing interests in archaeobotany and the applications of GIS and remote sensing in cultural heritage management and non-invasive site discovery and analysis.
I have an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Staffordshire University, UK, and a master’s degree in Environmental History (M.Phil) from Trinity College Dublin. At Trinity, I investigated the colonial hydrology of British-mandated Mesopotamia in the 1930s, tracking the influence of British-imposed water resources engineering on the traditional hydrological practices of local Iraqi communities and date farmers.
I have been based in Madison since 2024 for a graduate degree in Water Resources Management (M.S.), which I received from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in August 2026. Through this program, I became involved with the water quality monitoring, shoreline assessment, and geospatial analysis of agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) for the Beaver Dam Lake watershed, an hour northeast of Madison.
I also worked in wild rice restoration with the Lake Winnebago Wild Rice Revitalization Project, in collaboration with the Brothertown Indian Nation.
With my experience, I hope to explore the ways archaeology and the environmental humanities can show how traditional, sustainable practices can inform climate adaptation and mitigation solutions, for the benefit of today’s at-risk communities in the face of the climate crisis.