In This Section

Degree Major Emphasis Institution Year
Ph.D. History of Art and Architecture University of California, Santa Barbara 2013
M.A. History of Art and Architecture University of California, Santa Barbara 2008
B.A. Architecture and French Cultural Studies Wellesley College 2004

Katherine Kaford received her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research interests include the development of the modern home in post-war America, the history of domesticity, the changing role of women in domestic space, material culture, practices of everyday life, the interior, collecting, consumption and display. Before coming to UCSB, Katherine earned her B.A. at Wellesley College in the fields of Architecture and French Cultural Studies, studied Architectural Design at MIT and studied Renaissance Architecture and Urban Planning in Florence with Syracuse University.

The History of Architecture: Ancient - Renaissance
The History of Architecture: Renaissance - Contemporary
The History of Art: Ancient to Renaissance
The History of Art: Renaissance - Contemporary
History of Modern Art
Art Appreciation
Southern Californian Modernism
History of Architecture and Urbanism Abroad
History of Contemporary Art
Women in the Arts

Graduate Seminars:
Historic Preservation
American Dream: Suburbia and Home

20th century modernist architecture, domesticity and the interior, collecting, display and consumption

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
University of California, Santa Barbara

Articles and Essays:

“Katherine Morrow Ford: Designs for Living,” in Routledge Companion to Women in Architecture, ed. Anna Sokolina, UK: Routledge (forthcoming, 2021)

“Lois Davidson Gottlieb: ‘A Woman Fellow’,” in Routledge Companion to Women in Architecture, ed. Anna Sokolina, UK: Routledge (forthcoming, 2021)

“Eames House/Case Study House #8,” in Buildings of California, ed. Emily Bills, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press (2017)

“Stahl House/Case Study House #22,” in Buildings of California, ed. Emily Bills, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press (2017)

“Miles C. Bates House, Palm Desert,” in Walter S. White: Inventions in Mid-Century Architecture, by Volker M. Welter, Santa Barbara, CA: Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (2015)

“The Carefree Californian: ‘Cliff May Homes,’ 1952-1958,” in Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance of the Ranch. New York: Rizzoli (2012)

CONFERENCE PAPERS and INVITED LECTURES

“Aesthetical Insights to Leadership: Architecture, Art, Literature, and Music,” Dr. Paul and Annie Kienel Leadership Institute, California Baptist University, February, 2019

“Spectacle and Display: Kitchen Design in Glass Houses,” PCA, Indianapolis, Indiana, March 2018

“From California Style to Lifestyle: Cliff May and the Ranch House,” SAH, Pasadena, California, April 2016

“Cliff May and the California Home,” Curator’s Walk, CBU Gallery, Riverside, California, June 2015

“Plush to Glass and Other Anti-Dust Catchers,” SECAC, Sarasota, Florida, November 2014

“Katherine Morrow Ford: Finding the Feminine in Modern Architecture,” SECAC, Greensboro, North Carolina, October 2013

“California’s Architectural Frontier 1: Concept, Greek and Gothic Revival Buildings,” Revival Styles in Southern Californian Architecture, Spring 2013

“Icon and Anonymity: What is Californian Architectural History?” discussion chair, UC Santa Barbara, May 2012

First Lutheran, Lake Elsinore

Girl Scout Troop Leader

Reading
Cooking
Playing with my children
Waterskiing
Gardening

Proverbs 31:10-31 (A Wife of Noble Character)