Mary Fesak is the recipient of the 2018 SESAH Graduate Student Research Fellowship. The Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians makes this award annually to support thesis and dissertation research. Mary will use this award to support the fieldwork necessary to complete her thesis, a study of early-to-mid twentieth century equine landscapes in Aiken and Camden, South Carolina. Mary’s thesis will analyze the equine landscapes to understand how barns in these two “wintering colonies” reflected local vernacular building practices and design aesthetics. It will also offer insight into how the equine landscapes reflected class, gender, and racial hierarchies. These unique landscapes have been neglected by scholars and face development pressures as the racing industry continues to decline in South Carolina. The spaces inside the barns and the barnyards will be evaluated using diagrams of the functions of each space and the use of space by class, race, and gender. The study will also use sight-line analysis to determine owners’ prioritization of spaces and presentation of their race barns to the public and their peers.
Read more here: http://sesah.org/2018/02/02/2018-sesah-graduate-student-research-fellowship/