Heritage Preservation at Georgia State University

From the academy into practice. A next progression for recent MHP public history graduate students who are able to bring their academic research to a public audience. Keandres Dyson, Maya Henry, and Jessica Brooks are kicking off an exhibition of their capstone projects at the Sun ATL on June 19th from 2pm - 5pm. The exhibit will feature a talk from each curator and a screening of Maya's documentary Sexy in Sepia: Black Burlesque, Sexuality, and Socialization in Media and Performance. 

The exhibit is titled Self-fashioning Sacred Selves and focuses on artwork and histories of Black artists, communities, and families. The exhibit breaks down into three sub-exhibits titled “Sexy in Sepia”, “Her Lens, Her Voice”, and “Anchored in History”. Each exhibit focuses on the way Black artists and communities create their own identities through movement arts, visual arts, and storytelling. The ethos of the project follows the second principle of the Nguzo Saba, Kujichagulia or self-determination in which Black people craft our own selves for us, by us. The exhibit includes burlesque pieces such as gloves, feather fans, headpieces, and pasties, oral histories, family objects, photography, and an original documentary.

Thanks to everyone who made our field study trip to Savannah such a wonderful learning experience! This includes site visits with a focus on various topics such as local preservation planning, architectural preservation, historical archives, African American history, historic site interpretation, tax incentive programs for rehabilitating historic structures, and cemetery conservation. Thanks to all the wonderful preservationists and public historians who shared their time and expertise!






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Congratulations to the students that completed the MHP capstone course and those graduating this week! They recently presented their final projects and posters to fellow students, faculty, family, and members of the Atlanta preservation and public history community. We appreciate all your hard work and wish you much success! Thanks to all who attended.

Julie Abraham, Documenting Change and Continuity: An Historic Resource Survey of East Cobb, Georgia

Jessica Brooks, Restoring The Gaze: Black Women Photographers

Vivian Cannella, Documenting Forty Oaks: Architectural and Historical Documentation Using Historic American Building Survey Guidelines

Keandres Dyson, Preservation Beyond the Museum

Ira Eidle, Documenting Neurodiversity History

Sepideh Farahmand, Kodak Building: A Façade as a Storytelling Canvas

Maya Henry, Sexy in Sepia: Black Burlesque, Sexuality, and Socialization in Media and Performance

Azlyn Hernandez, Supercut History: Preservation Through Location, Location, Location

Mackenzie Roach, Grain and Grit: Georgia Craft Brewing

Kellea Roberson, Everlasting Resilience: Cobb Bethel Cemetery and its Restoration

Ryan Smith, Sanford Wade Heritage House Historic Structure Report

Rob Sturgess, Preserving Black History in Clarkston: The Clemsil Historic Resource Survey and StoryMap Project

Students in the Investigating and Documenting Historic Structures course are in the process of recording the Bryan House in Kathleen, GA.  It was constructed in 1832 and is fairly unique for a few reasons. First, the dogtrot layout was built using post and beam framing. Dogtrots were typically assembled using stacked round or hewn logs. Second, dogtrot houses were vernacular in style. At the Bryan House, it’s quite the opposite. There are several details you usually find only in high style architecture like the use of wainscotting and faux finishing. The wainscot detail was even extended onto the porch, which created additional living space on the exterior of the home.  

Still more rare is the inclusion of a rain porch, which is characterized by a roof that extends further than the porch decking. These features make the Bryan House a very exceptional design for the period.

MHP graduate student Kellea Roberson recently hosted a headstone cleaning workshop at Cobb Bethel AME church in SW Atlanta. Participants included MHP students, members of the congregation, and the local community. This served as part of her capstone project that explores the intersection between historic preservation, community empowerment, and the traditional trades.

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Thanks to for hosting Georgia State’s MHP students at their Mid-town Atlanta office for a Section 106 Lunch & Learn!

Annie Williams and Ryan Jackson from provided valuable insight as we highlighted the importance of preservation in transportation projects.

Connecting students with real-world practice is what makes collaborations like this so valuable.

This was also very timely as we recently launched a CRM certificate with the Anthropology Department & students were able to learn about careers in cultural resource management.