Karina Roca

Master of Science in Historic Preservation

Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Karina Roca graduated from Pace University in 2019. During her time in New York City, she honed her appreciation for the urban built environment, learning to view cities through the lens of honoring ancestral ways of being and becoming. Through this experience and her undergraduate studies, she fostered a passion for Historic Preservation. Upon first visiting New Orleans, Karina noted the vast number of West African
ironworks embedded in the city’s built environment – important elements of cultural history that she feels she can be an advocate for, with Tulane’s help. Karina is currently a blacksmith apprentice in New Orleans working under Darryl Reeves, the last living Black master blacksmith in the Gulf South. Karina plans to complete her Master of Science in Historic Preservation in tandem with her ironwork preservation training under Reeves. In addition to learning skills and best practices through both educations, she aims to digitize much of Reeves’s work as a means of preserving his increasingly rare methods. In all, Karina looks to leverage TuSA’s excellent academics to bolster the work she is already doing outside the classroom.

“I look forward to being surrounded by scholars and academics who really care about preserving history truthfully and honestly – with integrity. This program at Tulane is exciting because it’s expanding my network and my community of folks who are like-minded in that way.”