In his dissertation, Dr. Ellis researched the Berry Hill plantation in Halifax County, Virginia, and used its establishment and construction in 1842 as a case study to explain the ways in which class, gender, and race were manifested in the material culture of plantation society. From Dr. Ellis, "Academic styles and vernacular forms are expressive cultural symbols that must be considered in relation to the spatial configurations which they envelop. Style, form, and space together constitute the cultural phenomenon of architecture, and I seek to understand architecture as an active force that reveals the intentions of its builders even as it shapes the social dynamics of a given time and place."