The PhD in Historic Preservation at Columbia GSAPP invites applications from scholars and researchers interested in rethinking preservation as a field of experimentation; bringing historical and critical inquiry into dialogue with materials science, building technology, design, and emerging forms of research.

Established in 2017 as the first PhD in Historic Preservation in the United States, the program seeks to expand the discipline’s intellectual and methodological boundaries and to cultivate new paradigms for scholarly research, experimental practice, global action, and communication.

We are particularly interested in candidates whose research asks how the knowledge embedded in existing buildings, historic materials, construction traditions, and preservation practices might contribute to addressing urgent environmental, cultural, technological, and social challenges.


Research Directions

The program welcomes proposals in all areas of research spanning preservation, architecture, art, science, technology, history, policy and the social sciences. For the 2027 cycle, we are especially interested in research proposals that address questions concerning what existing buildings, earthen and low carbon materials, and preservation knowledge can contribute to the future of the built environment. We encourage all research proposals to bring historical, policy and critical inquiry together with applied experimentation with preservation technologies and material practices.

Possible areas of investigation include:

• regenerative, low-carbon, circular, and bio-based materials, including earth, stone, lime, plant fibers, bio-based and living materials.
• the role of existing buildings and historic construction knowledge in climate adaptation and the transition toward a low-carbon built environment;
• repair, maintenance, reuse, and transformation as alternatives to demolition and replacement;
• new approaches to material conservation, characterization, fabrication, environmental simulation, and building performance;
• computational methods and emerging technologies applied critically to the study and preservation of existing buildings;
• histories of materials, construction knowledge, labor, extraction, and resource use;
• relationships among cultural heritage, land stewardship, environmental justice, and the material transformation of the built environment.

These examples are intended to suggest a field of inquiry rather than prescribe a research agenda. We encourage applicants to propose their own critical and experimental approaches to what preservation might become amid global crises.

Research at Columbia

Doctoral students have access to a broad network of scholarly resources across GSAPP and Columbia University.

The Preservation Technology Lab and Natural Materials Lab provide distinctive environments for experimental research-through-making, material characterization, computational and geospatial analyses, fabrication, and prototyping. Students can move between archival and historical research, laboratory investigation, digital and computational methods, and physical experimentation at scales ranging from microstructural analysis to architectural assemblies and building-scale demonstrations.

The Preservation Technology Lab also houses an extensive collection of building materials and fragments from historic structures, providing a unique resource for teaching and research.

Beyond the laboratories, students have access to the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library and to the wider intellectual community of GSAPP and Columbia University. Doctoral students are encouraged to capitalize on connections to the Columbia Climate School and its research units, Columbia Oral History, INCITE, the Center for Science and Society, and the many other university divisions. Candidates are encouraged to develop interdisciplinary research relationships that extend beyond preservation and to participate actively in international conferences, workshops, exhibitions, and collaborative research initiatives.

Who Should Apply

We welcome applicants from historic preservation and from closely related fields whose work could contribute to the future of preservation research.

Candidates may come from backgrounds including preservation, architecture, art, engineering, materials science, architectural history, art history, archaeology, environmental studies, design, the social sciences, or other relevant disciplines.

Strong candidates will have relevant prior experience in preservation, demonstrate excellence in academic writing and independent research and a capacity to formulate an original doctoral project. Experience with field work, laboratory research, computational methods, environmental simulation, fabrication, or other experimental methodologies is welcomed but not required.

Above all, we seek intellectually ambitious candidates who want to work across disciplinary boundaries and who see preservation as a field capable not only of interpreting and caring for the past, but of producing new knowledge for the future.

Program Structure and Funding

The doctoral curriculum normally consists of two years of coursework, followed by one year devoted to preparation for and completion of the general examinations, and two years of independent dissertation research and writing. The expected total time to completion is five years.

Doctoral students customarily receive the annual prevailing stipend and appropriate tuition and health fees for five years.

The PhD in Historic Preservation is housed in the Preservation Technology Lab, within the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), while the degree is granted by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS).

A Doctorate for the Future of Preservation

The doctoral program combines a historical understanding of preservation’s evolving purposes with critical speculation about the forms of knowledge and practice the discipline will require in the future.

It fosters research addressing the ethical, technical, aesthetic, environmental, and social problems of the twenty-first century while giving students the intellectual independence to question existing assumptions about what preservation is, what it preserves, and what it might become.

Candidates will conduct original independent research with support from Columbia’s preservation faculty, laboratories, libraries, and broader scholarly community.

Application deadline: January 7, 2027

All applications must be submitted through the online portal of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

For application requirements, please consult the Columbia GSAS website.

For additional information about the program, faculty, research, and facilities, please visit the PhD in Historic Preservation Program webpage.