School of Art and Design
Visiting Instructor, Art History

Phone: 828-227-3601
Email: jafarris@wcu.edu
Office Address:  FPAC 140/141

Education:

• Ph.D., Cornell University (History of Architecture and Urbanism), 2004 (fields of specialization: Asian (particularly Chinese) Art and Architecture, 17th- to 20th-Century Architecture and Urbanism in Global Perspective, British and North American Material Culture, Vernacular Environments, Colonial Environments)
• M.A., University of Virginia (Architectural History), 1995
• B.A., Yale University (History of Art/Archaeological Studies), 1993

Awards/Grants/Honors:

• Robert D. MacDougall Memorial Scholarship, Cornell U., Summer 2004
• A. Henry Detweiler Fund Research Grant, Cornell U., Summer 2003
• Lam Family Foundation Travel Grant for Research on South China, early Summer 2003 (for research in London, England)
• Lam Family Foundation Travel Grant for Research on South China, Fall 2002 (for research in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, China)
• Cornell U. International Studies in Planning funding for Grad. Research, Fall 2002
• A. Henry Detweiler Fund Research Travel Grant, Cornell U., Summer 2002
• Graduate Student Transportation Grant, Cornell U., 2001
• Vernacular Architecture Forum Student Fellowship Funding, 2001
• President of Cornell History of Architecture and Urbanism Students, 2000
• Distinction in the History of Art Major, Yale U., 1993
• A. Conger Goodyear Fine Arts Award, Yale U., 1993

Professional Society Memberships:

• Vernacular Architecture Forum
• Society of Architectural Historians
• Association for Asian Studies
• National Trust for Historic Preservation

Languages:

• Chinese (Mandarin)
• French
• some Latin

Publications and related scholarly work:
Pending articles for conference proceedings as noted below.

• Pending book, Dwelling on the Edge of Empires: Foreigners, Architecture, and Canton, China,   being considered at various presses….
• Book review on Duanfang Lu’s Remaking Chinese Urban Form: Modernity, Scarcity, and Space,  1949-2005 in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, March 2008
• Article—“Thirteen Factories of Canton: An Architecture of Sino-Western Collaboration  and Confrontation,” in Buildings and Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular  Architecture Forum, Volume 14, 2007
  Book review on Peter Rowe and Seng Kuan’s Architectural Encounters With Essence  and Form in Modern China and Shanghai: Architecture & Urbanism for Modern China in  Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, June 2006
  Dissertation—“Dwelling on the Edge of Empires: Foreigners and Architecture in Guangzhou  (Canton), China,” submitted August 2004
• Book review on Marilyn Casto’s Actors, Audiences, and Historic Theaters of Kentucky, in  Vernacular Architecture Newsletter, Summer 2001
• Book review on Kai Yin Lo’s Living Heritage: Vernacular Enviroment in China, in Vernacular  Architecture Newsletter, Winter 2001
• Master's Thesis--"David Meade II and Chaumiere des Prairies"
• Undergraduate Theses--"Domestic Architecture of Bath County, Kentucky, from Settlement to  Civil War" and "The Maya Towered Palaces of the Central Yucatan: The Rio Bec Sub-style  and its Meanings"

Invited Presentations:

• Pending:  “The Thirteen Factories of Canton: A Provisional Presence,” for Permanence and the  Built Environment in the Pacific Basin Conference at USC-Huntington Early Modern  Studies Institute, April 17-18, 2009.  Conference proceedings to be published.
• Pending:  “China’s Treaty Ports: Dynamics of Global and Local in the West’s Architectural   Presence,” for Workshop and Conference on Global Port Cities and Networking at Bryn  Mawr Colllege, November 16-17, 2008.  Conference proceedings to be published.
• “Dwelling on the Edge of Empires: Foreigners, Architecture, and Canton, China,” Annual Linda  Memorial Lecture on Asian Art, Palmer Art Museum, Pennsylvania State University,  March 7, 2007
  “Identifying Rural Historic Districts”, at Auburn University Transportation Conference (Dept. of  Engineering) in Montgomery, Alabama, February 11, 1999
• "Fiske Kimball and Stratford Hall" at U. Va. Fiske Kimball Library 25th Anniversary Symposium,  November 19, 1995.  Paper was reproduced with conference proceedings on the Fiske  Kimball Homepage, Fiske Kimball Fine Arts  Library Website, University of Virginia

Other Presentations:

• Pending: “Foreign Visitors, Cantonese Gates” at Society of Architectural Historians Annual   Meeting, Pasadena, CA, 2009
   “Insular Living and its Exceptions: Foreigners and Architecture in Canton, China, 1860s-1910s” at  Vernacular Architecture Forum Annual Meeting, Savannah, March 31, 2007
•  “Thirteen Factories of Canton: An Architecture of Sino-Western Collaboration and   Confrontation” at SECAC/MACAA Annual Conference, Nashville, Oct. 26, 2006
• “Thirteen Factories of Canton: An Architecture of Sino-Western Collaboration and    Confrontation” at Vernacular Architecture Forum, Tucson, April 16, 2005
• “Dwelling on the Edge of Empires: Habitation in Guangzhou’s Foreign Neighborhoods” at   Association for Asian Studies Conference, Chicago, April 2, 2005
• “Dwelling on the Edge of Empires: Habitation in Guangzhou’s Western Neighborhoods”, at  Society of Architectural Historians Annual Meeting, Providence, April 15, 2004
• “Mapping Domestic Realms in Urban New York, 1680s-1720s”, Vernacular Architecture Forum,  Newport, April 18, 2001
• “Designs for Success: Two Patrons and Architectural Innovation on the Southern Frontier” at  Society of Historians of the Early American Republic meeting, Lexington, Kentucky,  July 16, 1999
• “To those unacquainted with his premises#’: Houses and their Inhabitants in Antebellum   Alabama”, at VAF annual meeting, Columbus, Georgia, May 8, 1999
• “Designs for Success: Two Patrons and Architectural Innovation on the Southern Frontier”, at the  SESAH annual meeting, Fayetteville, Arkansas, November 12-14, 1998
• "David Meade II and Chaumiere des Prairies: A Study in Architecture and Ideas of Success" at  1995 Kentucky Heritage Council Conference
• "Domestic Architecture of Bath County, Kentucky, from Settlement to Civil War" at 1993   Kentucky Heritage Council Biennial Conference

Other field-related experience (includes primary authorship of 9 National Register nominations):

• Chair, “Cross-Cultural Expressions” paper session, Vernacular Architecture Forum meeting,  Fresno, California, May 10, 2008
  Co-organizer, “Building the University: Spaces, Narratives, and Ideologies”, Cornell University  Architecture Department Graduate Student Conference, April 18-19, 2003.  Responsibilities included obtaining and hosting keynote speaker Richard Guy Wilson as  well as reception and dinner organization.
• Co-curator of graduate student-produced exhibition, “Changing Roles—Changing Views: A   Woman’s New York, 1900-1940”, at Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, August  19-October 22, 2000 
• National Register Nomination (co-author)—Airmount Grave Shelter, Clarke Co., Alabama
• National Register Nomination—Forks of Cypress Cemetery, Lauderdale Co., Alabama, Fall 1999
• National Register Nomination—Stephen Beech Cleveland House, Clarke Co., Alabama, May  1999
• National Register Nomination—Bush House, Clarke Co., Alabama, May 1999
• National Register Nomination—Cobb House, Clarke Co., Alabama, May 1999
• National Register Nomination—Pine Apple Historic District, Wilcox County, Alabama—Oct. 1998
• National Register Nomination—Furman Historic District, Wilcox County, Alabama—Oct. 1998
• National Register Nomination—Dry Forks Plantation, Wilcox County, Alabama—Oct. 1998
• National Register Nomination--Oak Hill Historic District, Wilcox County, Alabama—June 1998
• National Register Nomination--Ruins of the Forks of Cypress, Florence, Alabama--June 1997
• Architectural survey of Bath County, KY, in preparation for senior thesis & above mentioned  presentation, Summer 1992
• Archaeological field school, College of William and Mary, in Netherlands Antilles, Summer 1991