Dr. Sarah Zenaida Gould delivers her lecture in front of Historic Preservation faculty and students. 

By Casey Gannon

The Historic Preservation Graduate Program celebrated its 30th anniversary Feb. 21 with a lecture from Sarah Zenaida Gould.

Gould, who is based in San Antonio, is one of three co-founders of the Latinos in Heritage Conservation (LHC), founded in 2014. LHC allows historic preservationists to network with each other, and gives Gould a way to advocate for heritage conservation.

Gould does not do traditional work in her field. Instead, she focuses more on the grassroots aspect of historic preservation.

Gould’s speech, “Locating Equity and Social Justice in Historic Preservation,” focused on diversity and social justice in the field, and applying that to students’ historic preservation studies.

“We have a really remarkable underrepresentation of… people of color, women [and] LGBTQ groups in our designated historic sights,” Gould said. “Whether that’s at a local, state or national designation level, Latinos represent less than one percent of designated sites — so we have been trying to do work to get more sights recognized, but also to energize Latino communities to do some of that work.”

Regarding the 30-year anniversary of the historic preservation program at the University of Maryland, Gould said she is extremely impressed with the program and hopes it continues to place an emphasis of diversity and other social issues.

“I noticed that the [University of Maryland Historic Preservation Program] already has built into it a strong central justice component, which is fantastic,” Gould said. “And I think it really reflects the direction the field is going. I actually think [the program is] ahead of the field.”

Gould’s lecture was attended by faculty and graduate students. Sara Baum, a first year graduate student studying historic preservation, expressed the significance of the program’s anniversary.

“Historic preservation in itself has grown in 30 years,”Baum said. “So we’re kind of learning about this and how the preservation community is moving forward, and trying to be more inclusive and diverse.”

Katherine Calvert, a first year graduate student studying historic preservation and anthropology, emphasized how the growing interest and opportunities in the field have allowed her to connect with more students.

“[The significance is] the ability to work within different departments within different majors, like the anthropology department and architecture,” Calvert said.

Second-year historic preservation and architecture master’s student Amy Duan also agreed with Calvert that the interaction between historic preservation and other fields is one of the most significant aspects of the anniversary.

“It’s the combination of historic preservation and other fields intersecting over the 30 years, so that’s an achievement,” Duan said.

The graduate program will lead a retreat to the Cape May Historic District in early May to further commemorate its anniversary.

“Heritage conservation is never about the buildings, it’s always about the people,” Gould said. “It’s about belonging and identity.”