Identity, Sovereignty, and Cold War Politics in the Building of Baghdad
Date and Time
Location
This conference is open to the public.
Using the history of urban development in Baghdad as a reference point, this conference examines the extent to which interventions intended to modernize and integrate different populations in the city were part of a larger process of negotiating competing visions of political economy, sovereignty, and identity in post-WWII Iraq. By gathering political scientists, architectural and urban historians, and scholars of Iraq and the larger Arab world, the conference engages theoretical and empirical questions about the ruptures and continuities of Baghdad’s urban and political history, using the built environment of the city as a canvas for understanding struggles over Iraq’s position in a global context shaped by ongoing war tensions (from the Cold War to the Gulf War and beyond) to more recent Middle East conflicts. The full day event (September 19) will be preceded by a Keynote Panel held the prior evening, focused on the relationship between war and urbanism, a theme that will re-emerge comparatively and historically in subsequent day’s panels which focus on a range of theoretical, historical, and practical dilemmas facing Baghdad and other cities in the region. The conference ends with a half-day discussion of the urban planning, design, and governance challenges facing the city now and in the near future.
Sponsored by Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. Co-Sponsored by Aga Khan Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design; MIT Center for International Studies; Harvard University Graduate School of Design Master of Design Studies Program; Harvard GSD Urban Theory Lab; Harvard GSD Master of Design Studies; Harvard Urban Planning and Design Interdisciplinary Initiative.
Contact:
buildingofbaghdad@gmail.com
Visit the conference website for full details and program: http://gsd.harvard.edu/buildingofbaghdad
Conference Organizer:
Diane Davis, Professor of Urbanism and Development; Co-director Risk and Resilience Masters in Design Studies; Harvard University Graduate School of Design; Faculty Associate, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
Co-organizers:
Dr. Łukasz Stanek, University of Manchester Architecture Research Center; Phillip Baker, Harvard University Graduate School of Design.