Specialization:
Areas of Concentration: Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean Architecture and Public Spaces; Theories of Nationalism, Regionalism, and Citizenship; Spaces of Cultural Transmission
Faculty Advisor: Richard Wittman
M.Litt Thesis: "Roman Holiday: Constructions of National Identities in John Shaw Smith’s Environs of Rome" (University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, completed 2023)
Bio:
Elizabeth Saubestre is a second-year PhD student in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in the architecture of the nineteenth-century Mediterranean world. She is interested in the ways in which the architecture and public spaces of Southern European countries resisted and/or adhered to burgeoning nineteenth-century ideals of national identity and citizenship. Her research has been supported by the UCSB Regents Fellowship (2024-25).
Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Elizabeth received her B.A. in History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley. She then completed her Master of Letters in Art History at the University of St. Andrews under the advisement of Dr. Lenia Kouneni, engaging in archival research at the University of Edinburgh and writing her thesis on the hobbyist photographer John Shaw Smith’s travel photographs of Rome, for which she was awarded distinction. She spent the subsequent summer earning a certificate in French Museological Studies from the École du Louvre in Paris. In addition to her research, she is engaged in the local arts community, having worked in Development at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and helping with panels and events in conjunction with UCSB’s Department of Art.