Spatial Reparations: Material and Territorial Practices of Justice

Catalog description

This interdisciplinary seminar will look at the ways in which acts of historical repair and justice have been materially negotiated through landscapes, sites, buildings, and objects. Historic and collective trauma – from the injustices of colonialism, slavery, war, dispossession, genocide, and ecocide – often involves multiple, interconnected scales of harm, and accordingly demands responses that consider multiple forms of healing. Forms of repair might include the restoration of a local ecosystem, the establishment of an archive, the preservation of a building or street, legal acknowledgement of heirs, the transfer of property rights, or the repatriation of artworks. This course will consider these interdisciplinary approaches and strategies of redemption through both readings and case studies. Case studies will be international in scope and will focus on the ways in which an engaged approach to history can inform responses through landscape, community activism, architecture, monuments, artworks, exhibitions, or archives. Students are not required to have a background in architecture, and students from different disciplinary backgrounds and interests are encouraged to participate. One of the goals of this course is to explore how architectural, urban planning, and landscape approaches to reparations offer forms of knowledge that are productive for other fields. But we will also look at how different disciplines can contribute unique responses to addressing historical trauma and injustice. Classes will consist of weekly discussions of readings, peer feedback on final projects, and student presentations chosen from suggested case studies. As a final project, students may write a research or critical essay, or may produce a visual or graphic work that includes a written component.