Julia Meinhardt is studying the regional impacts of Indonesia’s new capital city of Ibu Kota Nusantara alongside her counterparts at Institut Teknologi Kalimantan in Balikpapan. She is interested in how rapid urbanization is spatialized in predominately forested areas and how urban planners and designers can develop and implement more effective, sustainable, place-based, and regional-scale planning initiatives.

Julia’s research interests are heavily shaped by her upbringing in a deeply rural, forested community in the Sierra Nevada of California.

She received her bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Montana State University and her master’s in urban planning is from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.