CROSSROADS: Uncovering the Histories of the Built Environment in the Americas and the Global South
The first quarter of the XXI Century needs—demands—architectural historians to proactively distill the networks of power that plague the discipline. We are here to reimagine the discipline’s boundaries and decipher its intersections by foregrounding the plurality of political and economic actors at work in constructing the architectural narratives of the Americas and the Global South from the twentieth century to present. The paradox makes it even more interesting for the Americas, which belong both to the Global South and the Global North, problematizing the traditional geographical demarcation of our knowledge base.
On February 17 and 18, 2023, the Ph.D. students of the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture will host CROSSROADS, a symposium that invites critical discussion with respect to broadening the limits of authorized narratives in the canon. Doctoral students and emerging scholars in architectural history and allied fields will present current research that de-centers the individual architect and the individual building, embracing instead the crossroads of the overlooked evidence. Resulting in a subsequent publication, this symposium seeks to build an alliance of scholars whose research redefines the writing and teaching of architectural histories with this more inclusive future in mind.
PRESENTATION SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2023, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
9:00 - 9:15 am | Welcome Remarks, Fernando Lara
9:15 - 11:15 am | Session 1: BORDERS / BOUNDARIES / LANDSCAPE
- 9:15 - 9:35 am: Ernesto Bilbao, Civilizing Letters and Landscapes: Frederick Law Olmsted through the Lenses of Edward Said’s Orientalism
- 9:35 - 9:55 am: Lucia Galaretto, Timekeeping: Agricultural Infrastructures and Archaeological Reconstructions in Guatemala (1936-1954)
- 9:55 - 10:15 am: Morgan Newman, Black Placemaking at the Periphery: A Discussion on Placemaking, Wooded Areas, and Black Socio-Environmental Relations
- 10:15 - 10:35 am: César Lopez & Germán Pallares, Towards a New Border Conscience
- 10:35 - 11:15 am: Moderated Discussion
11:15 - 11:30 am | Break
11:30am - 1:00 pm | Keynote Presentation, Fabiola López-Durán | Location: Goldsmith Lecture Hall (GOL 3.120)
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2023, 2:00 - 6:15 PM
2:00 - 4:00 pm | Session 2: POWER EXCHANGES
- 2:00 - 2:20 pm: Giovanna Bassi-Cendra, Building Extractive Development: Techno-Scientific Complex, University-City of Concepción, Chile, 1952–1968
- 2:20 - 2:40 pm: Nicolay Duque-Robayo, Ciudad Guayana, the Limits of Spatial Planning, and the Case for Intellectual Curiosity
- 2:40 - 3:00 pm: Eun-Jeong Kim, Architecture of Foreign Aid: the case of the Sun-Kam orphanage in Postwar Korea
- 3:00 - 3:20 pm: Edgardo Perez Maldonado, Modern Architectural Heritage and the Untold Narratives of Exclusion in San Juan
- 3:20 - 4:00 pm: Moderated Discussion
4:00 - 4:15 pm | Break
4:15 - 6:15 pm | Session 3: CITIES AND CITIZENSHIP
- 4:15 - 4:35 pm: David Franco, Architectural Informality and Politics in African American Yardwork
- 4:35 - 4:55 pm: Uzair Farooq Mir, The camp on the move: space and logistics in Kashmir
- 4:55 - 5:15 pm: Francisco Díaz, Collective Architectural Expertise: The Urban Improvement Corporation in Chile and its Witty Local Cadres (1966-1973)
- 5:15 - 5:35 pm: Aabiya Noman Baqai, Re-Imagining Citizenship through Everyday Assemblages in Islamabad
- 5:35 - 6:15 pm: Moderated Discussion
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2023, 9:30 - 11:30 AM
9:30 - 11:30 am | Session 4: BEYOND AUTHORIZED NARRATIVES
- 9:30 - 9:50 am: Alhelí Harvey, Rehearsing Enchantment: Boosting and Building Difference in New Mexico
- 9:50 - 10:10 am: Sardar Hussain, Distance & Prolixity: Conversations with My Other Selves
- 10:30 - 10:50 am: Albert José-Antonio López, “Planificar, Coordinar, Vigilar”: Regional Planning and Bureaucratic Administration in Mexico, 1945-1958
- 10:50 - 11:30 am: Moderated Discussion
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CROSSROADS is organized by Melanie R. Ball, Mónica del Arenal, Tolu Oliyide, Irina Rivero – Ph.D. Students in Architectural History and Historic Preservation at UT Austin School of Architecture.
For questions and inquiries, please email utsoa.symposium@utexas.edu.
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If arriving after 5:00 p.m., please enter Goldsmith Hall via the entrance to the North Lobby, which faces the West Mall and the Texas Union.
Image: Yangbin Park, Border(less), 2020. Ink and graphite on paper. Courtesy of the artist.