Rosetta S. Elkin (Canadian, American) is a practice-based scholar. Her work sheds light on how landscapes evolve through the relationship between people and plants. Elkin draws on multi-disciplinary scholarship that explores the history of the environment through horticulture, architecture, literature, and the arts, as context for adapting to a changing climate.

Elkin is the author of Plant Life: The Entangled Politics of Afforestation (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), an exploration of large-scale tree planting campaigns that was awarded the ‘On the Brink Book Award’ from the University of New Mexico. Landscapes of Retreat (K.Verlag, 2023) a series of fieldwork-based case-studies that reframes human migration, now in its second edition printing (2025), and was awarded the ‘J.B. Jackson Book Prize’ from University of Virginia Center for Cultural Landscapes. Other books include Tiny Taxonomy: Individual Plants in Landscape Architecture (Actar, 2017), Live Matter: Designing Plants (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, 2015) an edited volume Platform 6: A Year at Harvard Graduate School of Design (Actar, 2013). Elkin lectures widely and has published numerous book chapters, and articles in scholarly and professional journals including Harvard Design Magazine, Journal of Landscape Architecture, Arnoldia, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Oase Journal, Topos Magazine and New Geographies among others.

As founding principal of Practice Landscape, her creative commissions range from regional plans to ecological assessment, the enlargement of public parks, historic preservation and private gardens. Her work is recognized by various recognitions and awards including the Graham Foundation for the Arts, Harvard Climate Solutions Fund, Radcliffe Institute, The Garden Club of America Rome Prize, and invited exhibitions including: Victoria & Albert Museum, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chelsea Festival, Rotterdam Biennale, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Elkin currently serves as Professor of Landscape Architecture at Pratt Institute, and conducts her research as an Associate of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University.