Summary
Betta is a geographer and rhetorician whose work examines the politics of space, belonging, and accessibility. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she studies how public “third spaces”—such as cafés, libraries, and parks—simultaneously invite and exclude caregiving bodies, especially mothers. Her research draws on feminist rhetorical theory, paradox metatheory, spatial analysis, and creative methods to explore the lived experience of accessibility and exclusion.
Her doctoral work builds on a multidisciplinary background in human–environment interaction, museum studies, and social robotics. In collaboration with the Socially Assistive Robotics Group (SARG), she investigated socially-aware navigation in autonomous systems. Her master’s thesis framed the lab as a “wild space,” emphasizing how decisions and negotiations between engineers and robots should be understood within the field of human–robot interaction (HRI). Across these projects, she has examined how space is never neutral but deeply rhetorical—shaping who belongs, who is surveilled, and who must adapt their behaviors to participate in public life.
Her current research examines how mothers navigate and negotiate public space, challenging designs and norms that position caregiving as secondary or disruptive. By foregrounding mothers’ presence in third spaces, she calls for spatial imaginaries that recognize care work as essential to the fabric of public life.
Research interests
- Feminist and spatial rhetoric theory
- Human-environment interaction
- Paradox metatheory
- Public belonging
- Third place/space-making
Education
- M.S. in Geography, University of Nevada, Reno, 2025 | Thesis title: The Lab is Wild: Navigating Human-Robot Interaction as a Socio-Spatial Practice in the Design Environment
- B.A. in Communication Studies with a double minor in Art History and Museum Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, 2022
- A.F.A. in Art and Design with a concentration in Graphic Design, Parkland College, 2016