Decolonising the canon

EDI First Online SYMPOSIUM
14/12/2021
Sean Anderson (Director of the Bachelor of Architecture program) College of Architecture, Art, and Planning Cornell University, New York, USA; (Trustee) Africa Futures Institute, Accra, Ghana - Iain Chambers (Anthropologist, sociologist and expert in cultural studies), Naples, Italy - Iftikhar Dadi (Professor and Chair of the Department of History of Art and Director of the South Asia Program) Cornell University, New York, USA - Jerome Haferd (Co-founder) Harlem-based design practice BRANDT : HAFERD; (Adjunct Assistant Professor) Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York, USA - Ming Tiampo (Professor, Co-Director) Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

This panel unites educators who question and work to update systems that do not give ample weight to histories of culture in contexts such as Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania relative to North American and European frameworks of viewing the world. What if these contexts held keys to overcoming so many contemporary challenges of race, environmental justice, and new forms of urbanism? What if developing new networks and pedagogies could inform and inspire the global North on how to embed diversity, equity and inclusion at the heart of education? Taking case studies from the newly formed African Futures Institute in Ghana and online, as well as transversal programs such as Cornell University’s Institute for Comparative Modernities, UCL’s Worlding Public Cultures: Arts and Social Innovation program, MAHASSA, and others, this panel aims to point to what is missing in art and architecture education today in hopes that the field will update its syllabi to equip students to address the challenges of the 21st century with expanded lessons from the past.