Emerging Approaches to the Study of the Built Environment

A Conference at the University of California, Berkeley
Friday, April 30–Saturday, May 1, 2010

Location
112 and 104 Wurster Hall

Contact Info
Tiago Castela, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Cecilia Chu, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Links
Introduction
Conference Schedule: Friday, April 30 | Saturday, May 1
Call for Papers [PDF]
Full Conference Program [PDF]
List of Participants and Abstracts [PDF]
Conference Poster [PDF]

Introduction

In the past three decades, a growing number of scholars in the humanities and social sciences have turned their attention to space and to the built environment as a means of understanding historical processes. The writings of Lefebvre, Foucault, Gregory, Harvey, Soja, Latour and others have significantly reshaped the intellectual landscape across academic fields. Meanwhile, the subject matter and research methods of the history of architecture, landscapes and planning have become increasingly open to reassessment.

Looking to survey and assess new approaches and analytical tools for studying the history of built spaces across a variety of scales and geographies, this conference will explore a range of questions pertaining to theory, methodology and pedagogy. How has the “spatial turn” in the humanities and social sciences transformed the ways in which history of the built environment is theorized and researched? How should we study a historical moment when certain types of evidence predominate? What are the potentials and biases in the use of particular research techniques and narrative forms? To what extent are these choices shaped by disciplinary knowledge? How might such interrogations help us conceive new pedagogies for design and planning?

The conference is expected to attract a diverse group of scholars interested in interdisciplinary research on the history of the built environment. Participation from graduate students and early career academics is especially welcome. Participants will present papers related to one of the following two tracks: (1) Interrogating Theories and Methodologies, and (2) History as Pedagogy: Teaching and Practice.

Invited Speakers for the Conference Keynote Sessions (In Alphabetical Order)

• David Gissen (California College of the Arts)
• James Holston (University of California, Berkeley)
• Abidin Kusno (University of British Columbia)
• Sylvia Lavin (University of California, Los Angeles)
• Katharyne Mitchell (University of Washington)
• Edward Soja (University of California, Los Angeles)
   

Conference Sponsors at UC Berkeley

• Draper Architectural History Research Endowment of the College of Environmental Design
• Townsend Center for the Humanities
• The Graduate Assembly
• Center for Middle Eastern Studies
• Portuguese Studies Program
   

Conference Organizing Committee (In Alphabetical Order)

• Yael Allweil
• Tiago Castela
• Cecilia Chu
• Huey Ying Hsu
• Clare Robinson
   

Conference Advisors

• Nezar AlSayyad
• Greig Crysler
   

Conference Schedule

Friday, April 30

8:30–9 a.m. | COFFEE & REGISTRATION (108 Wurster)

9–9:15 a.m. | WELCOME & INTRODUCTORY REMARKS (112 Wurster)

Welcome: Nezar AlSayyad (UC Berkeley)
Introductory Remarks: Tiago Castela, Cecilia Chu (UC Berkeley)

9:15–10:45 a.m. | KEYNOTE SESSION I (112 Wurster)

Richard Walker (UC Berkeley), Moderator

Edward Soja (UCLA)
The Spatial Turn and the Persistence of Social Historicism / Privileging of History

Katharyne Mitchell (University of Washington)
Mapping Histories of the Future

10:45–11 a.m. | COFFEE BREAK (108 Wurster)

11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | PAPER SESSIONS I

A1 Theorizing Space and History (112 Wurster)
Greig Crysler (UC Berkeley), Discussant

B1 Media and Medium: Virtuality and the Representation of History (104 Wurster)
Ruth Tringham (UC Berkeley), Discussant

12:30–2 p.m. | BREAK (Lunch on your own)

2–3:30 p.m. | PAPER SESSIONS II

A2 Reading Against the Grain: Researching Built Forms and Lived Stories (112 Wurster)
Andrew Shanken (UC Berkeley), Discussant

B2 Pedagogical Practices and the Public (104 Wurster)
Nicholas de Monchaux (UC Berkeley), Discussant

3:30–3:45 p.m. | COFFEE BREAK (108 Wurster)

3:45–5:30 p.m. | PAPER SESSIONS III

A3 Ethnographies and History (112 Wurster)
Teresa Caldeira (UC Berkeley), Discussant

B3 Affect, Historiographies and Space (104 Wurster)
Charlotte Fonrobert (Stanford University), Discussant

5:30–5:45 p.m. | COFFEE BREAK (108 Wurster)

5:45–7:15 p.m. | KEYNOTE SESSION II (112 Wurster)

Louise Mozingo (UC Berkeley), Moderator

Sylvia Lavin (UCLA)
From Full to Fulsome

David Gissen (California College of the Arts)
The Historian Producer

7:15–8:45 p.m. | RECEPTION (Wurster Courtyard)

Saturday, May 1

9–9:30 a.m. | COFFEE & REGISTRATION (108 Wurster)

9:30–11:15 a.m. | PAPER SESSIONS IV

A4 Subjectivities and Spaces of Difference (112 Wurster)
Mark Healey (UC Berkeley), Discussant

B4 History as Pedagogy: Survey, Studio and Profession (104 Wurster)
Greg Castillo (UC Berkeley), Discussant

11:15–11:30 a.m. | COFFEE BREAK (108 Wurster)

11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. | KEYNOTE SESSION III (112 Wurster)

Peter Evans (UC Berkeley), Moderator

Abidin Kusno (University of British Columbia)
Researching Violence: Histories and Postcolonial Spaces

James Holston (UC Berkeley)
The Problematization of Space: Anthropology, Architecture, and History

1–2:30 p.m. | BREAK (Lunch on your own)

2:30–3:30 p.m. | ROUNDTABLE DEBATE (104 Wurster)

Cecilia Chu, Tiago Castela (UC Berkeley), Moderators

David Gissen (California College of the Arts)
James Holston (UC Berkeley)
Abidin Kusno (University of British Columbia)

3:30 p.m. | CONCLUDING REMARKS

Yael Allweil, Clare Robinson (UC Berkeley)