Editors’ Note

Volume 6 of Preservation Education & Research marks the arrival of a new editorial team for this unique and important journal. We hope to build on the quality work of the previous editors, Anat Geva, Kevin Glowacki, and Nancy Volkman, who helped to establish the reputation and scholarly rigor for which PER is known. Anat Geva and Nancy Volkman established PER, with support from the National Council for Preservation Education, in 2007 after recognizing that there was no refereed journal that focused on pedagogical issues related to historic environment education. Six volumes later, this still remains true, and PER has established itself as an important outlet for scholarly research related to pedagogical topics and cutting-edge research in the field. Sadly, Nancy Volkman passed away in September of 2013, but her contributions to PER will not be forgotten.

This volume of PER contains articles addressing a variety of topics including the relationship between professionals and documentation technology, the perception of the appropriateness of building interventions, demolition by neglect, the negotiation of the meanings behind what is “history” and the construction of historical facts, and pedagogical issues related to history of building technology courses. In addition, reviews of M. Eleanor Nevins’s Lessons from Fort Apache and Rebecca Lutkenhaus’s Cultural Property: A Legal Research Guide are also included in this volume.

In her article, Serra Akboy-İlk explores how heritage professionals use documentation technology in their work and how it impacts their relationship to and understanding of heritage. Continuing this social science theme and using methods more commonly found in environmental design and behavior research, You-Kyong Ahn answers questions related to how people perceive the appropriateness of interventions to historic churches. While many studies have looked at demolition by neglect issues, primarily from the regulatory environment, Galen Newman attempts to create a predictive model relating land conservation to demolition by neglect, which has not been addressed adequately to date. Cultural landscapes are often areas where the meanings of heritage are contested, which Bryan Orthel details in his study on the everyday history of a seemingly inconsequential place. In a similar study addressing the nature of historical facts, Manjusha Patnaik describes how historical facts are constructed from cultural values at Minto Hall in Bhopal, India, and how these values should then be used to guide the conservation of this important site. Lastly, Amalia Leifeste critiques history of building technology courses through the episteme of science and technology studies.

We also have some important news about the rest of the team that helps bring you PER. In October of 2013, the NCPE Executive Committee appointed several new members to an expanded PER Editorial Advisory Board: Steven Hoffman (Southeast Missouri State University), Carter L. Hudgins (Clemson University/College of Charleston), Paul Hardin Kapp (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Ted J. Ligibel (Eastern Michigan University), Andréa Livi Smith (University of Mary Washington), and Robert Young (University of Utah). We welcome our new board members who will join Vincent L. Michael (Global Heritage Fund) and Michael A. Tomlan (Cornell University) in helping us to grow the quality and reach of PER.

As we build on the efforts of Geva, Glowacki, and Volkman, we will be focusing on maintaining high-quality submissions and increasing overall awareness of the journal, especially in international contexts. Our newly expanded editorial board will be a key part of this process, as we seek broad engagement and diverse ideas to move PER to the next level. We encourage NCPE members to contact us with ideas and feedback on the journal, including submitting PER Forum short essays in response to previously published content in PER (see “Guidelines for Authors” at the back of this journal for more details).

Book reviews have been an important cornerstone of PER and much gratitude is due to Catherine Zipf, PER’s first book review editor, who helped establish PER as a reliable source for news on publications that are of interest to preservation educators. With volume 7 of PER, we welcome Gregory Donofrio (University of Minnesota) as our new book review editor. Dr. Donofrio’s broad background in preservation issues, practice, and education makes him particularly well suited for the task and we look forward to his contributions in the next volume of PER.

Lastly, we would like to thank NCPE’s Executive Committee and the NCPE membership for their continued support of PER. In addition, we would like to thank all of the authors, reviewers, and past and present Editorial Board members for their contributions that helped make this volume of PER possible. We would also like to thank the people who helped produce volume 6: Maria DenBoer, copy editor; Karen Ward, graphic designer; Cayuga Press; and Historic Urban Plans, Inc.

Special thanks also go to Dean Stephen White at the School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation at Roger Williams University and the National Council for Preservation Education for helping to fund the publication of this volume of PER.

Jeremy C. Wells and Rebecca J. Sheppard
Editors, Preservation Education & Research

 

ARTICLES

The Mediated Environment of Heritage Recording and Documentation
Serra Akboy-İLk

Adaptive Reuse and Historic Churches
You-Kyong Ahn

A Conceptual Model for Measuring Neglect Rates in Historic Districts
Galen Newman

The Story of Shoes in Trees: Understanding History as an Existential and Social (but not Temporal) Narrative
Bryan D. Orthel

Anchoring Heritage with History—Minto Hall
Manjusha Patnaik

Science and Technology Studies Literature and Assumptions in History of Building Technology Courses
Amalia Leifeste

BOOK REVIEWS

Eleanor Nevins, Lessons from Fort Apache
Jeremy C. Wells

Rebecca Lutkenhaus, Cultural Property: A Legal Research Guide
Barry L. Stiefel