PhD in Historic Preservation

The PhD in Historic Preservation at Columbia GSAPP is seeking candidates who bridge experimental preservation technologies and material design research to develop doctoral research addressing pressing contemporary environmental, cultural, and social challenges.

We seek candidates who will utilize research methodologies from Preservation, Art, Architecture, Science, and Technology (PAAST). Candidates will have the opportunity to cultivate a scholarly dialogue across history and theory of preservation technology, building physics, and social sciences. A deep focus on natural, low-carbon, and bio-based materials, such as earth and stone, is highly desirable. The candidate’s proposed preservation research topic will, ideally, not only address environmental and cultural urgencies in the face of climate change, but will also critically interrogate societal impacts related to marginalized communities, resource scarcity, and land use. 

The candidate will have access to a wide range of scholarly resources within GSAPP’s research faculty and facilities. Specifically, the Preservation Technology Lab and the Natural Materials Lab will provide valuable opportunities for hands-on experience and access to testing tools for various materials, scales, and experimental setups. This includes conducting research experiments and developing installations and demonstrations ranging from micro-scale to macro-and building-scale.

The ideal candidate for this program should have a background in preservation and proficiency in academic writing, conducting experimental setups, and a solid understanding of how to integrate historical research with a critical perspective on preservation and fabrication. The program highly encourages academic exchanges with scholars from other institutions, as well as active participation in international conferences and workshops.

The PhD in Historic Preservation was launched in 2017 and is oriented toward the training of future historic preservation scholars. The first of its kind in the United States, the program aims to expand the discipline’s range of intellectual entanglements and cultivate new paradigms for scholarly research, experimental practice, global action, and communication. 

Doctoral students customarily receive the annual prevailing stipend and appropriate tuition and health fees for five years. The program is housed in the Columbia GSAPP Preservation Technology Lab.

The Preservation Technology Lab serves teaching and advanced doctoral research on the experimental preservation of built heritage and building materials through a constantly evolving myriad of analogue and digital technologies. As part of this mission, the lab encourages awareness of, and creative approaches to, preservation technology as a means to bring about meaningful cultural, social, political, and ecological change in the built environment. We achieve this by facilitating interdisciplinary postdoctoral, doctoral, and masters level research, hosting visiting scholars and promoting dialogues between leading visual artists, architects, engineers, creative technologists, and scientists. The lab is the repository of an extensive collection of building materials and fragments of historic buildings that are used by GSAPP faculty and students in teaching and research. The collection is searchable online and available for research purposes to Columbia affiliates and Visiting Scholars.

The doctoral program underscores a historical understanding of the discipline’s evolving challenges and purposes; promotes theoretical speculation on alternative modes of practice suited to deal with the ethical, technical, aesthetic, and social problems of the twenty-first century; and fosters a critical and scholarly culture conducive to preparing the discipline’s next leaders.

Candidates are expected to conduct independent research with support from the preservation faculty’s wide range of expertise, the Preservation Technology Lab, the Natural Materials Lab, the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, and the rest of the scholarly community at GSAPP and Columbia University, more broadly.

The curriculum requires two years of coursework, one year to prepare and take general exams, and two years for independent research and writing. The total time to completion is expected to be five years. The PhD in Historic Preservation is a program within the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) while the actual degree is granted by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). 

The deadline for applications is January 4, 2024. All applications must be submitted through the online portal of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. For application information and requirements please see the Columbia GSAS website.  

For more information visit the PhD in Historic Preservation Program webpage.