Historic Preservation Student Spotlight

We are excited to bring you updates from the future preservationists of Georgia! Students in Historic Preservation and related fields have accomplished a lot this academic year and contributed to interesting projects across the state and the country! Many are also participating in internships in the preservation field this summer. We look forward to seeing how they progress in the preservation field in Georgia and the wider world in the years to come. 

Read more below about updates from the 2024-2025 academic year provided by programs across Georgia.

PRESERVATION ACADEMIC PROGRAMS IN GEORGIA

Graduate-level preservation degree programs are offered at Georgia State University, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and the University of Georgia. SCAD offers an undergraduate BFA in Preservation Design. Preservation-focused courses are offered at Kennesaw State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Southern University, Savannah Technical College, and the University of West Georgia.

Georgia State University

The following is a list of the graduating students graduating from the MHP program and their thesis titles. Congratulations Graduates!

• Liam Cochran, Historic Resource Survey of Tryon Forest
• Bria Felicien, Tracing Almeta: Mapping Atlanta’s Jim Crow Era Women’s Basketball Community
• Bridget Foreman, Designing Woman: Liela Ross Wilburn Wielding Her Gender in a Plan Book Business and Architectural Designs
• Parker Hilley, Rhythm and Roots Masking Traditions from West Africa to New Orleans
• Mary Ilonah, Alonzo Herndon Home Disaster Preparedness Plan
• Swathi Jayakumar, The McConnell-Chadwick House Condition Assessment Report
• Simone Kaplan, Not Your Grandma’s Garden Shed: Shed Style Architecture in Georgia
• James Mitchum, Marginalized Voices of Our Overseas Cemeteries: They Fought a Two-Front War – Celebrate the Other Victory
• Hallansa Sewer, Landscapes of Freedom: Mapping the Heritage and Preservation of St. John’s Free Communities
• Niyah Shaheed, Queering Blackness Oral History Project

Savannah College of Art and Design

The following is a list of the graduating students from the MFA, MA, and BFA Preservation Design programs. Congratulations Graduates!

• Savannah Mae Tuten, M.F.A Preservation Design
  • Thesis - Legacy of Laura Pope: Sustainable Strategy for a Visionary Art Environments
• Susannah Schorlemer, M.A Preservation Design
  • Preservation as a Catalyst: Economic, Cultural, and Social Benefits of Establishing a Historic District for Waco’s Cameron Park Neighborhood
• Taryn Hansen, B.F.A Preservation Design.
  • Capstone project - East Cleveland Revitalization.
• Mark Stephens, B.F.A. Preservation Design.
  • Capstone project - Beyond the Turnstiles: Preserving Theme Park History Through Archival Design
• Katie Daniel, B.F.A Preservation Design
  • Capstone project - The Resurrection of Agriculture: Revitalizing Imperiled Post-Industrial Rural Communities

University of Georgia

The University of Georgia’s Master of Historic Preservation program this spring honored a number of students who graduated in the 2024-2025 academic year (Summer 2024-Spring 2025). Each of these students completed all the requirements for graduation, including the completion of a thesis, intended to make a new contribution to the field of Historic Preservation.

• Bobby Carpenter’s thesis, “A City of Open Spaces” examined the history, culture, and preservation politics of Savannah’s Yammacraw Village.
• Amy Andrews, in “Reese Street's Last Stand,” analyzed gentrification and displacement in one of Athens’ historically black historic districts.
• Laura Leigh Haga’s thesis, “In a League of Their Own” is an innovative look at two groundbreaking, mother-daughter architects from Macon, Ellamae Ellis League and Jean League Newton.
• Janeth Garcia Torres examined the cultural landscape and future preservation of Rio Vista Farm, a key processing center and site in the Bracero immigration program in her thesis.
• Jeffrey Bussey’s thesis, titled “Preservation Trades & Workforce Development,” was an essential look at contemporary efforts to preserve preservation trades for future generations.
• Mamie Sevier, in “Get With the Dam Program,” wrote about towns lost to Tennessee Valley Authority dams and how we can use these places to think about preservation and climate change.
• Maddy Markle’s thesis, “But You Don't Look Like My Autistic Child,” examines the ways that historic sites might accommodate an important but largely overlooked set of visitors, those on the autism spectrum.
• Adam Miller examined a set of Atlanta’s understudied cultural institutions and its implications for LGBTQ preservation efforts in his thesis, “Gay Bookstores.”
• Leo Umberger’s thesis, “The Tacoma Method,” examined the ways that visitors encountered Tacoma Chinese Reconciliation Park, and the degrees to which they experienced it as a space for memorialization.
• Madeleine Gereighty, in “Out of Touch,” took on the topic of intangible cultural heritage and southern Louisiana and Cajun cuisine.
• Haylee Rose’s thesis, “The Stamp of Approval,” took on the task of surveying and evaluating for national register eligibility mid-twentieth-century post offices in Kansas.
• Sarah Harrison examined Atlanta advocacy groups and Confederate memorials in “Monumental Reckonings in the City Too Busy to Hate.”           

Kennesaw State University

Jennifer Dickey and her students are currently engaged in two noteworthy field projects. The first is a survey of historic resources for the City of Kennesaw, which is being conducted by students in her Historic Preservation class. They are working with Sandra Hall and Emily Cochran along with planning staff from Kennesaw to complete the survey and update GNAHRGIS for the City of Kennesaw.

The second project is a Historic Structure Report for the Deckner House in Atlanta that is being prepared by students in Dickey’s Documentation and Interpretation class. The Deckner House, built in 1867, is now owned by Atlanta Technical College, with whom they are working to document the history and condition. The house is a contributing resource in the Capital View National Register Historic District. Their hope is that the report prepared by the students will help guide Atlanta Technical College as they contemplate possible uses for this historic resource.

Jennifer Dickey is a Professor of History, Coordinator of Museums, History Program, and Public History with the Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Kennesaw State University.

Savannah Technical College

During the spring semester, students from the Historic Preservation & Restoration department at Savannah Technical College began restoration of the Kollock family tabby burial vault in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah. The vault was constructed in 1877 and is the only tabby vault in any of the city's cemeteries. The department was approached by Savannah's Director of Cemeteries to do the work. The Kollock family had been in contact with the Bonaventure Historical Society about cleaning and repairing the vault and other monuments in the lot.

The students devised a conservation plan which started by documenting the vault with measured drawings and photographs, accompanied by historical research.  After testing different treatments, the students cleaned the tabby and marble with D/2 biological solution. Work will continue into the summer as the students solve problems caused by missing tabby and other physical damage. 

The students working on this plan include Oryn Armstrong, Dwight Bivings, Dayana Del Larco Cardenas, Nina Farace, McKenzie Mitchell, Christian Nguyen, Lauren Oden, and Kathy Sandin. The faculty supervising is Connie Pinkerton

Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Tech continues to pursue myriad projects that explore intersections of digital documentation, heritage tourism, and preservation technology through seminars, independent studies, and sponsored research:

• In January 2025, a collaborative team embarked on an exciting research and digital documentation project in the Dominican Republic with the Ministry of Culture. This team consists of Associate Professor Danielle S. Willkens and PhD candidate Botao Li from Georgia Tech, Professor Junshan Liu (Georgia Tech PhD graduate 2024), PhD candidate Shadi Alathamneh of Auburn University, and Professor Maria Jose Viñals of Universitat Politècnica de València. They documented the 16th century Ingenio de Boca de Nigua, taking pilot scans of portions of the caves within the Anthropological Reserve of Cuevas del Pomier. The team will return later in 2025 for follow-up documentation.
• An Undergraduate Sustainability Education Innovation Grant from Georgia Tech supported a fall 2024 senior architecture studio at the NHLD Penn Center, SC, for “Live Oak Studio: Tradition + Reinvention.” This senior architecture studio was built upon established relationships with the Penn Center (est. 1862) on St. Helena Island, SC, to propose a new multi-purpose educational building composed of mass timber, constructed on the site’s property outside of the National Historic Landmark District boundary (NHLD, est. 1974). Students explored the history and applications of regional woodcraft and low country vernacular, engaging in an intensive field study in September, and working closely with site leadership. As a real-world community project, the studio melded sustainable design, preservation technology, and a deep study of contemporary design and material innovation using one of the region’s most venerable and precious resources: wood. Students returned in late November to present their work to the community; a studio book recording all research and design work is in development.
• A Transformative Teaching and Learning Grant for Course-Based Undergraduate Research from Georgia Tech supported a fall 2024 Georgia Architecture seminar focused on documenting and visualizing the Georgia Green Book sites. Student research was presented through two tours in Sweet Auburn during the recent Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) 78th Annual International Conference.
• PhD candidate Botao Li is currently pursuing a unique internship with WJE in Atlanta, where he is performing several digital documentation and structural assessment projects, including Creque Marine Railway in   St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, and a facade and water damage investigation for Constitution Building in Atlanta.
• Working with the Smithsonian, Sharon Park, FAIA (emeritus Associate Director for Architectural History + Historic Preservation), incoming PhD student + MS in Digital Media candidate Yizhou Lin (March 2023) is advancing an interactive historical preservation glossary for wood deterioration using machine learning. The work was recently presented at the 2024 SESAH conference in Marietta and was featured in the 2025 programming for the Atlanta Preservation Center’s Phoenix Flies. We look forward to a public text launch in the fall.
• Work continues on the rehabilitation of the Tankersley Rosenwald School in Hope Hull, AL, through a National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grant subaward with Auburn University
• Dean of Libraries Leslie Sharp led a historic preservation seminar in the spring semester, and the students’ research work is informing an ongoing project on the work of Howard Finster at the Paradise Garden Foundation.