LSU’s Doctor of Design in Cultural Preservation serves a market of interdisciplinary professionals by building on the strengths of faculty across the university, integrating expertise to address contemporary issues in four areas of specialization. The 60-credit-hour program encompasses six semesters of study and 45 hours of course offerings specific to the curriculum and its advanced nature, mostly devoted to individual, supervised research, requiring students to work one-on-one with faculty.
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Doctor of Design Featured Graduate
Katherine Fresina
Katherine Fresina
DDes 2024
Katherine Fresina is a 2024 graduate of LSU’s Doctor of Design in Cultural Preservation program and an advocate for cultural stewardship through museums. Fresina has worked at the LSU Rural Life Museum throughout her doctoral education as an assistant registrar and presently serves as the museum’s curator.
Katherine Fresina has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious College of Art & Design 2024 Dean’s Medal for her outstanding dedication and academic excellence as an LSU student. Fresina is only the third Doctor of Design student ever nominated for the award.
Fresina’s involvement at the LSU Rural Life Museum began after earning her Master of Arts in Art History from LSU in 2013. Her interest in working in a museum prompted Fresina to find her own entry point to the field – as a volunteer at the LSU Rural Life Museum. She was quickly brought onto the museum’s curatorial staff as a part-time collections assistant. It was during her time as a collections assistant that Fresina enrolled in LSU’s Doctor of Design in Cultural Preservation program; she was hired soon after as a full-time assistant registrar at the LSU Rural Life Museum. In 2022, Fresina was promoted to be the museum’s curator, a role which she continues to excel in today. Fresina is staying in Louisiana after graduation and plans to continue as the LSU Rural Life Museum’s curator.
Fresina’s studies at LSU on the historical significance of objects have made a significant impact on the experience of visitors to the LSU Rural Life Museum. As reflected in her doctoral dissertation “Preserving the Embodied Meaning of Objects,” Fresina possesses a unique interest in understanding the meaning that historical objects held to their original owners. This interest directly translates into the presentation of artifacts in the LSU Rural Life Museum’s collection.
“Her research gave her valuable insights into the relationship between material culture and people who created and used the objects,” said Museum Director Bill Star. “The museum and its visitors benefit from a more nuanced and contextualized interpretation within the museum.”
Fresina is a graduate of the Class of 2024, the largest graduating class yet of Doctor of Design in Cultural Preservation students.