PhD Candidate
North America
Kate Kuisel is a historian of the North American built environment, centering on fireproof architecture and infrastructure at the turn of the 20th century. Broadly, she is interested in questions of urban resilience and risk management in calculating climate risk and toxicity in the prewar era. Currently, she is examining the role of asbestos in expanding public and private infrastructure, framing the 'magic mineral,' as first a technology, rather than merely a toxin. Whereas previous scholarship has explored the medical and legal history of asbestos as a contaminant, her research instead seeks to uncover the environmental and spatial histories of asbestos in the making of California's prewar urban landscape. Kate's previous research examined the politics of racial uplift and African-American beauty culture through skin-whitening creams.
Research Interests
- Environmental History
- History of Technology
- Toxicity and Public Health
- History of Fire and Disaster
Awards and Fellowships:
- 2025 J. Donald Hughes Graduate Research Fellowship-American Society for Environmental History
- 2024 Leon Litwack Graduate Essay Prize for African American History-UC Berkeley History Department
Education:
B.A. History and Philosophy, University of South Carolina, 2023.
