From the Dean: September 2024

The start of the new academic year is a time of renewal and excitement. There are so many emotions and preparations happening at once. As we enter a new year, the College of Architecture, Art and Design welcomes a record 1,041 students! As a college, we continue to see consistent growth in interest in our programs, and I am very excited about the new curricular developments our programs have been working on, including the Bachelor of Arts in Integrated Design and the Built Environment, the Bachelor of Applied Science in Construction Technology, the Master of Fine Arts in Historic Preservation, and the revival of the Master of Science in Architecture.

headshot of Angi Elsea Bourgeois The demand for our disciplines continues to be an excellent challenge, and in response, we are continuing to grow our faculty lines to accommodate this growth. The Department of Interior Design has added two new tenure-track faculty lines and has just hired the college’s first Assistant Professor of Practice, and the Department of Building Construction Science is kicking off their search for a new Professor of Practice line, as well as bringing onboard a new postdoctoral fellow this year. Additionally, across the college, we have also seen a very positive growth in graduate teaching assistants, who bring a great value of their experience and enthusiasm into our undergraduate courses.

Our primary mission is always focused on our students and their success, and I am incredibly proud of the work we are doing to provide them with new advanced technologies and undergraduate research opportunities that will prepare them to become future leaders in the world of design and the built environment. Through the actively engaged research our faculty are conducting, our students are getting a first-hand view of innovation and experimentation that will prepare them for the rapidly changing landscape of our shared disciplines. Our research activities help us support infrastructural growth in advanced technologies in design and construction, which in turn are helping us shape the future.

I also share with you that Dr. Shaw, our provost, asked that I step into an additional leadership role and serve as the interim dean of the Graduate School. I take on this challenge in part because our college is actively growing its graduate presence, and being able to learn and work closely with the Graduate School will help our academic units move forward in these goals more smoothly. As I work with the Graduate School to help them determine what is next for their leadership, I appreciate the leadership within CAAD and within the Graduate School who are working with me hand in hand to move us all forward.

Onward and Upward,

signature of Angi Bourgeois

Angi Elsea Bourgeois, Ph.D.

Dean | College of Architecture, Art, and Design

Interim Dean | The Graduate School

Summer Abroad
Architecture students use award funds for travel

Thanks to a $20,000 Aydelott Travel Award, Yuria J. Sloane, a senior architecture student, traveled this summer to Bolivia, Japan, New Zealand and Norway to research the use of architecture as a tool of oppression and liberation for indigenous communities. Her itinerary included studies of architect Freddy Mamani's El Cholets in El Alto, Bolivia; the Okinawa Prefectural Museum by Ishimoto Architectural and Engineering Firm in Naha, Okinawa; architecture firm Tennent Brown’s Te Wharehou o Waikaremoana in Te Urewera, New Zealand; and architects Christian Sunby’s and Stein Halvorsen’s Sameting in Karasjok, Norway.

Hear from Sloane about her travels and see her photos

Anna Rives Gully, also a senior architecture student, used funds from a $4,750 Trussell Travel Award sponsored by MSU School of Architecture alumnus Ted T. Porter to support her research on Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Read the full story about the travel awards

Leaving their Mark
Art students highlight crops with ag mural

Senior Chloe V. Ruggiero of Covington, Louisiana, and spring 2024 graduate Abbey R. Temple of Ridgeland completed a mural project for the university’s Department of Agricultural Science and Plant Protection this summer.

Located on the first floor of the Hill Agriculture Science Building, the 32-foot-long mural depicts select Mississippi crops—such as corn and rice—and the diseases that plague them.

Step by Step
BCS students build modular fabrication shop

Twenty-four Mississippi State building construction science students spent their summer designing and constructing a building that will serve as a modular fabrication shop for their department during upcoming renovations on campus.

The students were part of Assistant Professor Mohsen Garshasby’s first-year summer studio—a fast-paced, compact option available to incoming BCS majors—which met for the full summer session.

See photos of the build

People's Choice
Historic Preservation student finalist in competition

A graduate student in Mississippi State’s Master of Fine Arts in Historic Preservation program was one of fifteen finalists in the 2024 Image of Research competition. The finalists’ work was displayed in the Colvard Student Union Art Gallery where Charlyn D. King of Lauderdale was selected for the People Choice award.

Put on by the Graduate School, the competition “gives students the opportunity to engage creatively with their research, share behind-the-scenes views of their research processes or portray their academic study in visual form.”

King’s research focused on the preservation of the historic Lewis House in Gautier.

Read the story

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