Specialization:
Areas of Concentration: Twentieth and Nineteenth-Century Architecture in the United States; Design and Material Culture; Decorative Arts; Indigenous Architecture of the Americas; Exhibition Histories
Faculty Advisor: Swati Chattopadhyay
Committee Members: Richard Wittman, Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió (Urban Studies and Planning, UC San Diego)
Dissertation: "The Domesticated Landscape of War: Army Family Housing, Settler Belonging and Environmental Toxicity in the United States"
M.A. Thesis: "Dreamscapes of Domestic Fantasy: Advertising 1970s Interiors" (University of Brighton, completed 2016)
Bio:
Sylvia Faichney is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History of Art & Architecture at The University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in architecture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States. Her dissertation focuses on United States Army family housing programs in the United States, where she examines the standardization of Army family homes in relation to social and environmental histories of military landscapes. Additional research interests include other spatial histories of the Americas, particularly those related to domestic architecture, exhibition histories, design, and material culture. She also completed a minor examination in Indigenous architecture in the Americas.
Sylvia's dissertation is supported by a Humanities & Social Sciences Research Grant (UCSB, 2024), the Moore Family Fellowship in The Making of the American Landscape (2024), a Dumbarton Oaks Junior Fellowship in Garden and Landscape Studies (2025-26), and a Wyeth Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art (2025-27).
In addition to her academic interests, Sylvia has worked with various museums, including the Chicago Cultural Center, the MAK Center for Art and Design, and the Art, Design, and Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara. Sylvia is a Graduate Student Advisory Committee member for the Society of Architectural Historians, and will serve as Chair of the committee and an SAH Board Member from 2025-27.