URBAN WORLDS COLLOQUIUM

On Friday November 14th and Saturday November 15th, the Urban Space Lab hosted the doctoral student colloquium Urban Worlds: Cities, Spaces, and Materialities.  Over the course of two full days we convened to engage theoretical, methodological, and practical dimensions of urban research.  Sixteen Ph.D. students from six universities presented their work and received feedback from session chairs and audience members.  A substantial amount of the organizational work was done by current and former Urban Space Lab researchers Arimbi Alessandra, Aratrika Debnath, Yeon-Joo Kang, and Radhya Kareem.

The main purpose of the colloquium is to build a network of scholars in the New York region who are engaged in urban questions.  By this, we mean work where urban spaces, processes, and systems are not simply treated as a backdrop for unfolding dramas that happen to take place there, but rather are constituent in their very formation.  We are also interested in projects that explore the mutual constitution of the urban and the ‘not urban,’ that is, those scalar forms, institutions, spaces and territories that cannot be reduced to the urban, but rather are entangled with it--e.g., rurality, regions, the peri-urban mosaic, the nation, multilateral organizations, transnational corporations, zones of exception and exclusion, military and technological systems.   

 

We received many excellent proposals from Ph.D. students at different stages in their work, so we were able to put together a superb lineup of speakers.  Presenters covered a great variety of topics, geographies, and theoretical and methodological approaches.  They crossed multiple scales as well, from embodied experience to the spatial affordances of architecture and built environments, and from social relations to the planetary expanse of media, ecologies, and forms.

 

The event kicked off with a welcome address from Lara Penin, Professor of Transdisciplinary Design and Vice-President for Cities initiatives at The New School.  She reminded those assembled of the profound stakes faced by cities in an era of globalization, climate change, and rising authoritarianism.  It was an important framework for us to bear in mind as we contemplated the various topics presented over the next two days. 

 

Mia White, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at The New School, chaired the first session on Spatial Negotiations, and provided thoughtful and provocative feedback for the three doctoral student presenters.  Rustam Khan from the STS program at MIT presented "Hip Hop, Migrant Youth, and the Struggle for the Streets of Brussels."  Brian Bartholomew from The New School's Sociology Department shared his work on "Panhandling and Property: Negotiating Class and Capitalism in Everyday Life."  And Hart Zhang, from the CUNY Graduate Center, gave a visually rich presentation of his work on "Navigation and Resistance by Unhoused People in New York City's Penn Station."   

 

For the second session on Urban Governmentalities, New School Prof. Nidhi Srinivas provided his characteristically detailed and insightful feedback.  Pedro Ramos, from Columbia's Ph.D. program in Urban Planning, was first up with is presentation "Manufacturing Resilience: Water, Governance, and Power in Mexico City."  John Betts, Ph.D. student in Public and Urban Policy at The New School, followed with "A Tentative Metaphysics of Urban Homeless Governance," an analysis of a recent supreme court ruling regarding homelessness.  Finally, Ang Liu from Rutgers-Newark's Ph.D. program in Global Urban Studies presented "Borrowing in Shadows: Local Government Finance and Urban Development in China." 

 

The third and final session of the day was chaired by Noah Allison, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at Barnard, who brought expertise on urban communities and habitat for the session on Making a Home in the City.  Alonso Lopez, a doctoral student in Sociology at The New School, shared his project "Dwelling with Uncertainty in an Informal Settlement in Santiago, Chile," and Monise Valente da Silva, Ph.D. candidate in Public and Urban Policy at The New School, followed with a presentation of her work on "Squatting, Migration, and Housing Movements in Southern Brazil," followed by a lively exchange between the two of them on their shared research interests.   

 

On Saturday we got started a little late, but the proceedings were no less engaging.  Bas van Heur, Prof. of Urban Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel provided expert feedback from his decades of research relevant to a session on Scalar Forms and Meanings.  New School Ph.D. student Amogh Arakali was up first with his presentation on "Industrial Policy and the Evolution of Urban Regions in India."  Deepa Mehta, from the Columbia Ph.D. in Urban Planning program, shared her work on "Contract Horizons: New Financial Logics of Large-Scale Infrastructure."  And Ran Mei, Ph.D. student in Food Studies at NYU, completed an excellent session with her intriguing project on "How China's Appetite for Pork Has Shaped its Cities and Countryside." 

 

The colloquium continued with an exciting session on Urban Experience, chaired by Esra Sert, Assistant Professor of Architecture at MEF University in Istanbul.  Cheng Mun Chang, from the NYU Anthropology Ph.D. program, delivered a visually rich presentation on "Neon Signs and the Emergence of 'Hong Kong Visual Culture.'"  Zişan Tokaç, Ph.D. student in Global Urban Studies  at Rutgers Newark, shared her research on "The Changing Experiences of Summer and Heat Justice in Istanbul."  And Maya Herman from The New School's Sociology Ph.D. program presented "Space and Belonging among Legal Immigrant Parents in Brooklyn." 

 

The final session of the colloquium looked Toward Inclusive Cities.  Jilly Traganou, Prof. of Architecture and Urbanism at The New School, brought her expertise on social movements and prefigurative politics to the discussion.  Carlos Celis, nearing completion in the Public and Urban Policy doctoral program at The New School, shared his work on "Rehearsal Infrastructures: The Bogotá Care Blocks."  And Ghada Rifai, Ph.D. student in Global Urba

n Studies at Rutgers Newark, shared her timely and engaging study "Rebuilding Syria: Post-War Reconstruction and Inclusive Urban Planning." 

 

The colloquium ended with a reception, where attendees were able to follow through on the many discussions that arose over the course of two days, to exchange ideas and contacts, and generally enjoy conversations about cities and urban topics that can be difficult to find in individual programs or schools.  All in all it was a very successful event, and we hope to convene for a second colloquium next year!