Education
B.F.A. Savannah College of Art and Design, 2007
M.A. University of Texas at Austin, 2014
Biography
Marisa entered the Art History Ph.D. program in 2014. Her research addresses building materials and technology used in housing during the 20th century, including synthetic claddings, prefabrication, and component systems. Her work examines the intersection of technology, modernity, and cultural constructions of domesticity in American society.
Her dissertation traces the evolution of prefab technology developed in the 1930s at the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory through its application in postwar suburbs nationwide to construct a broader history of prefabricated housing in America. The project considers what the promise of prefabrication held for both builders and homebuyers, turning a critical eye to why the prefab industry ultimately failed to meet the utopian expectations of either group.
Primary Advisor(s)
Anna V. Andrzejewski