︎
21 January 2025
10:00 AM EST / 4:00 PM CET


Architecture school for others:
Howard University; and the inclusive architectural pedagogy (1970-1990)


ALI JAVID
University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

Respondent: Eleonora Antoniadou, Royal College of Art



The design studio’s fundamental question at Howard university:
“What is the most appropriate forms for Others architecture to take?” Image Source: The Hilltop, the student newspaper of Howard University, 1971

Howard University, a leading centre for training African-American students since 1924, has always been a hot-bed for protests against racial discrimination and gender inequality, but after 1968, it also became a base for Third World students protesting against colonialism and cultural-economic hegemony by Western powers in their countries. This atmosphere of the university attracted many Third World students and teachers from the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East to participate in its faculty of architecture during the 1970s. Subsequently, by gradually changing the faculty, the curriculum, and even the subjects of the projects, the School of Architecture endeavoured to address Third World countries' needs to shape their future. This presentation examines Howard's inclusive architectural pedagogy in the 1970s, which was implemented under the slogan "Education for All," and investigates its pedagogical response to the participation of students of multiple races and ethnicities from the Third World. Finally, the presentation will chart the impact of its pedagogy upon the subsequent work and approaches of Iranian architectural alumni, Kamran Diba and Khosrow Moradian, during the political crisis and the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

***


Women as Patrons of Architecture in 17th century Mughal Empire:
The Legacy of Nur Jahan



FARHAT AFZAL
DAAP, University of Cincinnati

Respondent: Gül Kale, Carleton University


Jahangir and Prince Khurram entertained by Nur Jahan (detail), India, ca. 1617.
© National Museum of Asian Art.



Islamic architectural history is often visually depicted in ways that contextualizes its significance in the contemporary world. This is illustrated using images showing scenes such as men performing ablutions inside mosque complexes or a group of male students sitting around a teacher in a madrasa. Rather than depicting monuments as empty and isolated, such depictions help to show how people interact with architectural spaces in the Islamic world. This approach is particularly valuable in contextualizing the architecture for people who are not familiar with the Islamic culture. However, many of these images mostly depict men, which often raises the question of “Where are the women?” While scholarship on women in the Islamic world haveincreased in the past several decades, primarily due to the increase in gender studies in western countries, scholars from both Muslim and non-Muslim backgrounds agree that the approach for gender studies developed in the West cannot be thoughtlessly applied to the non-West. In addition, there has been a dearth of scholarship on women and the visual culture of the Islamic world from the pre modern period. Which then raises the next question of, “Where are the women in art and architecture of the Islamic world?” This study thus aims to highlight the contributions of a woman who greatly influenced the artistic traditions of the pre modern Islamic world: Empress Nur Jahan, wife of Emperor Jahangir, the fourth ruler of the Mughal Empire. It will investigate how her architectural patronage in 17th-century India served as both a representation of her power and her position as a spiritual sovereign, a concept that ties political power with sainthood.
DocTalks is         Past Talks         Submit        Network