SAHGB’s Annual Architectural History Symposium for PhD and Early Career Researchers: CALL FOR PAPERS - Extended to 19 May
Re-reading and Understanding the Narratives of the Other
Deadline for submissions: 19 May 2024 (extended)
Symposium to take place: Weds. 26 and Thurs. 27 June, 2024
Where: In person at Birmingham City University, with an online registration option
“I like this idea that the explosion of radical approaches and pedagogy in the mid-twentieth century becomes assimilated. Another way of looking at this is to adopt Dana Cuff’s idea of the avant-garde in architecture being a permitted aspect of the centre in that it produces - intentionally - discrepancies in a way as to consolidate its centralising power..
(certain) architects are ‘allowed’ to move towards the edge and do their ‘naughtiness’, and are then gathered back in, and this in turn consolidates the hegemonic power structures that organise architecture and architectural production.”
Ambrose Gillick in conversation with Beatriz Colomina and Evangelos Kotsioris, about the book ‘Radical Pedagogies’ Nov 2022. (A is For Architecture, podcast)
There is increasing recognition that in order to foment real social progress, the acknowledgement of social struggles and the inclusion of voices, particularly of those from the ‘margins’, is required to alter entrenched social hegemonies. Such an imperative necessarily calls for the rewriting of architectural history.
This symposium is an invitation to do this rewriting, from the points of view of hitherto marginalised, silenced and gaslighted personhood. To challenge and subvert what is considered to be the “established” and the “canonical” a pre-requisite for social progress. We therefore encourage forgotten, peripheral, marginal and new “re- readings,” which can turn into vital lessons for actualising social progress.
This call is intended to acknowledge the historical moment. Post-George Floyd, new narratives and rewritings may seek to expand upon existing research approaches and ‘framings of history’, such as feminist architectural and critical theory and/or engage with narratives that live beyond the periphery of academia, or reflect the ‘in- between’ and ‘meantime’.
This call asks for:
- What narratives are under-represented throughout the discipline of Architectural History and of Architecture as practice and industry?
- What is the social effect of “re-reading” narratives of architectural history?
- How much of our understanding of architectural history is curated by unexamined problematic power relations between, for example, Europe and part of the Global South; between male and other genders; between the human and the non-human?
- What demands are required of the Heritage/Architectural History and research sectors as a result?
- In what ways does the re-reading of Architectural History reframe the discourse around narratives of the “Other” to adequately encompass the “Other”? How can this be propagated in today’s practice to provide socially-just spaces?
- How should we as historians relate to ‘problematic’ figures/subjects from within the history of architecture? Can a certain kind of treatment of such figures and subjects provide useful insights with a view towards achieving social progress, or should such figures and subjects simply be censored / cancelled?
We are interested in the less explored, the new and the non-traditional, in terms of approaches to research, case studies, events, figures, subjects, pedagogies and methods, and the relationship of these to dissemination, archiving and curation.
Submissions:
Please submit in the format of a single PDF file:
- Abstracts of no more than 300 words
- Your name and professional affiliation (if applicable)
- Deadline for submissions to be received: 19 May 2024
Please contact symposium2024@sahgb.org.uk
This event is organised by a core group of current SAHGB scholarship holders, supported by the Arnold Hayward Stevenson Fund. We wish to thank all partners involved for their roles in developing this initiative.
Paper selection and notification of authors is expected end-May 2024
We encourage the submission of conventional paper proposals from PhD and early career researchers, but welcome other appropriate formats to our subject matter such as poster presentations, films etc. Prospective participants should aim to limit presentations to 15 mins.
The call invites contributions from all regions, about all time periods, and from all disciplines and constituencies within Architectural History.
This two-day event will be held at Birmingham City University in a hybrid format. The symposium will be held the first day and the second day will consist of workshops and seminars for Early Career Researchers.
More details about the symposium, and how to register as a delegate, will be publicised at sahgb.org.uk in April, with a draft programme available in due course.
Tile image used with permission of Kani Kamil, from the 2022 Exhibition Rethinking the Grand Tour at Manchester Art Gallery. Read More on an Iraqi Hashimi dress, contained in the labelled drawer.
