Writing the History of the Built Environments of Asia: Materiality, Translations, and Colonialism

Overview

Organized by the doctoral students of Cornell University's History of Architecture and Urban Development program, "Writing the History of the Built Environments of Asia: Materiality, Translations, and Colonialism" seeks to discuss new approaches that prioritize material cultures in studying the colonial built environments of Asia. We invite graduate students to rethink together the previously established disciplinary and geographical boundaries of this large continent by focusing on cross-border connections, extractive economies, global and local translations, and multispecies entanglements. 

The term "Asia" has been used to refer to vast and different lands, including those in West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. In our re­imagination, knowledge on Asia acknowledges the multiplicities of these different lands, as well as connections, monetary exchanges, and translations within, into, and from it. Part of our intention in broadening the scope of our understanding of Asia and the built environment, both conceptually and methodologically, is to extend beyond the previously limited frameworks consisting of architecture and landscape. 

We call for studies of the environment that include previously understudied material aspects and agents of the built environment. This material ecology includes but is not limited to fluid or abject materialities, living and dead organisms, and apparatuses that complicate the constructed categories, which would unsettle established official narratives, colonial efforts, and human-centric ontologies. 

This semester's April 22nd symposium is open to the public. 

Please note: the April 21st workshop is open to only symposium speakers and members of HAUS.