Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation USC Master of Heritage Conservation Program

Small businesses provide much more than goods and services. Over time, they become neighborhood anchors and a key source of culture and community—especially for new Americans.

Heritage conservationists are increasingly turning to legacy business programs as economic development strategies to combat rising rents, gentrification, and the erosion of community character, particularly in ethnic and immigrant neighborhoods. In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with recent USC graduate Xiaoling Fang about her thesis, Legacy Business Program Implementation in American Urban Immigrant Neighborhoods.

Xiaoling explored some of the longstanding small businesses in L.A.’s Chinatown and Little Tokyo neighborhoods, and how legacy business programs, like the ones recently adopted in Los Angeles, can be used as a tool to help culturally significant and beloved businesses survive.

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What happens when a community takes its educational future into its own hands? Funded by local advocates and a generous grant from the Rosenwald Fund, the Allen-White School served the African American community in Whiteville, Tennessee from 1920 until 1974. With thousands of graduates, the school helped shape the lives of multiple generations.

Now, despite a 2012 arson attack, the alumni are working to restore the school buildings to once again serve the community. USC alumna and Tennessee native Brannon Smithwick dug into the stories of this influential school and the efforts to conserve it in her recent thesis, Educating Generations: The Legacy and Future of the Allen-White School Campus, A Rosenwald School in Whiteville, Tennessee. Through copious archival research and oral history interviews, Brannon learned firsthand the impact that one place can make.
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Warning: This episode features the difficult topic of sexual slavery during World War II.

Producer Willa Seidenberg talks with recent graduate Hanyu Chen about her thesis, Our Bodies, Their Battlegrounds: The Conservation of Comfort Stations in China. Before and during World War II, the Japanese Imperial Army forced women and girls into sexual slavery for the military in its occupied territories. Their captors called them "comfort women" and their prisons "comfort stations." Two of the few remaining former comfort stations are in Hanyu's hometown.

In this episode, Hanyu discusses how the "comfort women" system developed, why these crimes took so long to reach the public eye, and why conserving the few former stations is critical to reclaiming these women's stories.

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In case you missed it, we're re-releasing an episode from our first season, chosen by our Save As intern, Emily Kwok. It's an Emily's Pick!

Have you ever considered sound a character-defining feature? Musician and alum Kasey Viso Conley certainly has. She knows why Nat King Cole, Janis Joplin, Van Halen, and countless other recording artists insisted on using specific studios to get a certain sound. It’s the physical environment of the studio, from acoustic tiles to echo chambers.

Yet the transformation of recording technology has studios closing left and right. Why save these places when you can simulate their sounds with an app? How do you preserve pegboard that’s no longer made? Hear how Kasey explored these issues and many more in her thesis, Acoustic Heritage of Recording Studios: Physical Characteristics and Signature Sound.

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In case you missed it, we're re-releasing an episode from last season, chosen by our Save As intern, Emily Kwok. It's an Emily's Pick!  
Should the Brady Bunch House be in the National Register of Historic Places? Why not? asks alum Jonathan Kaplan. In his master’s thesis, the TV writer-turned-heritage conservationist makes a case for designating sites specifically for their use in movies and TV shows. Along with literary precedent dating back to Chaucer, Jonathan cites the deep meaning and shared cultural experiences these places create.  If a place inspires meaning, does it matter where that meaning comes from? Does reality matter in these fact-fluid times? Join us for a fascinating conversation that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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How can taking a building apart possibly relate to heritage conservation? Join us in the Upside Down for a chat with architect and alum Guadalupe Flores about his thesis, Deconstruction: A Tool for Sustainable Conservation.

When a building can't be saved, reusing the materials makes perfect sense. The concept of deconstruction certainly isn't new. But how do we make the case for it in a disposable society—and make sure it’s used only as a last resort?

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