2020 has stirred up architectural discourse as practitioners, academics, and students address racial and social inequality within the industry. With the turbulent Summer months sparking the nation to mobilize and bring social and racial justice to the forefront, academic institutions have used their Fall lecture series as a way to bring these discussions to light within their campus community.
Earlier this October, Harvard GSD invited Charles L. Davis II, assistant professor of architectural history and criticism at the University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning. As a designer, architectural historian, and cultural critic, his work focuses on racial identity and race thinking related to architectural history and contemporary culture. In his lecture, "Cannon Fodder: Debating the Racial Politics of Canonicity in Modern Architectural History," Davis presented a series of physical and textual case studies that re-examine architecture's understanding of "western canon to account for the role of racial ideas."
During an interview with The Harvard Crimson, Davis expands on the term anti-racist. "Contemporary theorists use the term to 'revise our understanding of what racism is and how it operates in our world.'"
The word anti-racist has become a familiar term spreading across media outlets. However, this year has sparked a need for other disciplines to address their anti-racist efforts. "When I am talking about an anti-racist architectural history, I am actually talking about the ways that architectural history is used instrumentally, as a kind of ideological tool to reaffirm certain forms of privilege or power structures in our discipline," he said.
Davis has been invited to speak at several virtual lectures this Fall at institutions like SCI-Arc, MIT, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the University of Minnesota, to name a few.
2 Comments
Race is a construct that became normative in the burgeoning scientific I9th century, but this analysis takes it too far. How are you going to inspire students to learn the art of architecture when you look at everything through the prism of race? Race is certainly a factor in the history of architecture, but so is it in all aspects of society. That doesn't mean that everyone was thought about race when they strove to create something beautiful. Just ask Stevie Wonder.
On the other hand nobody is suggesting we "look at everything through the prism of race"
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