Sarah Rogers Morris successfully defended her dissertation “Photographic Infrastructures”
Brandon Baker.
Dr. Sarah Rogers Morris
Sarah's dissertation is titled "Photographic Infrastructures: The Modern School and the Framing of American Architectural Photography, 1890-1950"
Sarah Rogers Morris successfully defended her PhD dissertation in Art History "Photographic Infrastructures: The Modern School and the Framing of American Architectural Photography, 1890-1950" with a memorable and most remarkable dissertation defense on Wednesday December 11, 2024. Congratulations Sarah!
The dissertation committee was chaired by co-advisors Professors Ömür Harmanşah (Art History) and Shiben Banerji ((School of the Art Institute of Chicago). They are both grateful for the members of the dissertation committee Professor Hannah Higgins (Art) , Andrew Finegold (Art History), and Victoria Cain (Northeastern University, History) for their support and generosity to Sarah's work. Many congratulations to this stellar architectural historian and historian of photography!
Dissertation Abstract
Photographic Infrastructures: The Modern School and the Framing of American Architectural Photography, 1890-1950 traces a global history of architectural photography and education between 1890 and 1950. It maps the movement of architectural, photographic, and pedagogical practices across US empire from its colonized periphery to its metropolitan center and rural fringe. The project draws on three novel photographic archives: surveys of infrastructure around the world made for school children, images of school buildings published in the architectural press, and pictures of learning environments featured in exhibitions meant to instruct the general public on the transformative potential of modern school design. It uncovers the social workings of photography by exposing the ways in which new approaches to teaching and learning in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century shaped the photographic representation of space and the built environment. Photographic Infrastructures argues that the framing, circulation, and display of architectural photographs was tied to pedagogical practices and conceptions of the classroom.
Modified on January 22, 2025