
Specialization:
Areas of Concentration: American public space and public sphere, the urban commons, maker- and hackerspaces, history of modern and postmodern architecture, and continental philosophy
Faculty Advisor: Swati Chattopadhyay
Committee Members: Richard Wittman, Alenda Chang (Film and Media Studies, UCSB)
Dissertation: "Please Hack: Makerspaces, Hackerspaces and Public Life in the Detroit and San Francisco Metropolitan Areas"
M.A. Thesis: "Pseudo-Public: Public Spaces as Self-Contradictory Enclosures" (California State University, Stanislaus, completed 2016)
Bio:
Ben is a sixth-year Ph.D. Candidate in the history of art and architecture interested in analyzing representations of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American public space, urban commons and community spaces in the popular imagination. He worked as Assistant Architecture Curator for the Modesto Art Museum from 2017-2018, continues to direct the Modesto Architecture and Design Week House History Workshop and was the recipient of the Graduate Committee Award (2018) in UCSB’s department of the history of art and architecture. Before commencing his graduate studies at UCSB, Benjamin received his B.A. in continental philosophy and M.A. in interdisciplinary studies from Stanislaus State University and was a 2014 recipient of the SERSCA (Student Engagement in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity) Presentation and Travel Grant.
Publications:
Ben Jameson-Ellsmore. "Curbside Castle: Architecture and Aspiration at an Oakland Homeless Encampment." PLATFORM, 2022.
Ben Jameson-Ellsmore. "Improvising Field Research in COVID-era Hackerspaces." react/review: a responsive journal for art and architecture (May 2021).
Ben Jameson-Ellsmore. "Hacking the Pandemic: Makerspaces and Hackerspaces Respond to the COVID-19 Crisis." PLATFORM, 2020.
Benjamin Jameson-Ellsmore. "Fault Lines: Homeless Art and Public People." Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara, 2019.
Benjamin Jameson-Ellsmore. "The Stanislaus County Hall of Records: Modesto's Monument to Modern Architecture." Modesto Art Museum, 2017.