OCTOBER 18 - 19 2007

Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities
Northwestern University

This conference emerges from several themes explored in the New Urban Cultures workshop sponsored by the Alice Kaplan Institute for the through a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

We aim to promote interdisciplinary discussions about the stakes involved in studying cities broadly in terms of time and space. Methodologically, we seek to foster interdisciplinary practices to study cities: their histories, forms, and the economic, social and cultural processes specific to the urban context. Thematically, we ask how to make sense of the experience of cities in crisis.

In recent years the disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sudan among others, have highlighted the need to address the global crises facing urban inhabitants. Yet, cities also struggle with everyday conflicts, such as inadequate water, housing, or educational services that pose ongoing social, political, economic, cultural, and architectural challenges. Rights to the city, from political representation to the uses of urban space are unevenly distributed--another abiding source of conflict. Such rights may be practical, e.g. to build housing, or symbolic, e.g. to commemorate the past. What is specifically urban about these conflicts and their resolutions? And what methods are productive for understanding the causes and effects of cities in crisis?

SPEAKERS

*Sudhir VENKATESH
Columbia University (Sociology)

*Rebecca ZURIER
University of Michigan (Art History)

*Louise YOUNG
University of Wisconsin-Madison (History)

*Annabel Jane WHARTON
Duke University (Art History)

*Sheila CRANE
University of Virginia (Architectural History)

*Abidin KUSNO
University of British Columbia (Urban Affairs)

*Ruth ROGASKI
Vanderbilt University (History)

*J. Phillip THOMPSON
MIT (Urban Planning)

*Sarah HERDA
Graham Foundation

www.asianandmiddleeast.northwestern.edu/citiesinconflict/

For more information, please contact
Laura Hein (l-hein@northwestern.edu)
Gergo Baics (g-baics@northwestern.edu )
Min Kyung Lee (min@northwestern.edu)
Marygrace Tyrrell (m-tyrrell@northwestern.edu)