Brian Whetstone

Brian Whetstone is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania's Stuart Weitzman School of Design. His scholarship examines housing, labor equity, and public history within museums, historic sites, and preservation organizations. Previously, he served as a historian for the National Park Service and held fellowships at Princeton University and Penn's Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites.

Education

• Ph.D., History, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2023
• B.A., History, Hastings College, 2018

Research Focus

Whetstone's work investigates the intersection of tenant labor, institutional housing, and heritage infrastructure. His book project, Renting History: Housing, Labor, and America’s Heritage Infrastructure (under contract with UMass Press), analyzes onsite residency at cultural institutions. A parallel project explores historic preservation's relationship with mass incarceration systems. His methodologies integrate oral history, urban studies, and critical preservation theory.

Publication Themes

Whetstone's articles analyze labor dynamics at heritage sites, including tenant-caretaker roles, slavery legacies, and systemic inequities in museum operations. His research consistently addresses power structures in cultural institutions through 20th-century case studies and contemporary implications.

Professional Service

• Board Member, Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation
• Membership Committee, National Council on Public History