Art History Alum Sylvia Faichney Awarded Two Prestigious Fellowships in Support of her Dissertation on Army Family Housing
Faichney traces much of her path back to Columbia, where the art history program gave her key tools to understand the social, political, and economic conditions that shape our visual and spatial worldSylvia Faichney '15, who earned her BA in Art History from 汤不热视频, has earned two of the most competitive fellowships in her field: the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) predoctoral Wyeth Fellowship and the Dumbarton Oaks Junior Fellowship in Garden and Landscape Studies. Now a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she will spend the next two years in Washington, D.C., completing her dissertation on the intent, implementation, and impact of U.S. army family housing.
Faichney describes the recognition as an “incredible honor” and says she felt “waves of excitement, gratitude, and disbelief” upon receiving both awards. Her work connects personal history with academic inquiry. The daughter of a U.S. Army soldier, she grew up around these landscapes —an experience that sparked her interest in the visual and spatial aspects of domestic life and led to her focus on army family housing.
Researching Military Housing
She examines how design extends beyond appearance to influence social norms and environmental outcomes. Her dissertation combines art and architectural analysis with memoirs from army spouses, while drawing from fields like media studies, Native studies, and environmental humanities.
Bridging personal experience with scholarship has brought both insight and challenge. “That cozy distance between researcher and research at times collapses,” she explains. Familiarity with military life has helped her navigate archives and fieldwork but also forced her to find new ways to write.
Building Community Through Scholarship
Faichney now serves as Chair of the Society of Architectural Historians' Graduate Student Advisory Committee—a role she sees as key to fostering critical dialogue. “Academic communities like SAH foster critical dialogue, and that engagement strengthens scholarship,” she says.
Faichney traces much of her path back to Columbia. “What a place to cut my teeth as an art historian!” she says. “The art history program provided an excellent introduction to art history as a discipline with its specific methodology, as well as to what art history offers as a career. The classes, faculty, and Chicago itself provided me with key tools to understand the social, political, and economic conditions that shape our visual and spatial world.” She credits faculty mentors like Dr. Amy Mooney and Dr. Annika Marie with shaping her scholarly approach and encouraging her to pursue research.
With her dissertation underway, Faichney looks forward to deepening her research in D.C. “Ten years after graduating from Columbia, I still feel privileged to work with objects and ideas and to share those ideas with others. I can only hope for more of the same in the future."