(c) Modernistki
We invite you to submit applications for the 2nd International Conference “Modernistki. Violence in Architecture and Urban Space”.
Dates: September 15–16, 2017
Venue: Zabolotny State Scientific Library of Architecture and Construction (Kyiv, Ukraine)
Applications accepted: until August 15, 2017
In the first half of the 20th century, women got a possibility to obtain architectural education in many countries. At the same time, the architectural profession has always been related with power, political and socioeconomic processes in the society. The architecture as a form of power resulted, quite often, in a special kind of violence because the decisions taken by architects would primarily comply with customers’ requirements – was it the state or a business entity – and hardly ever would they go in line with the requests of the society. Thus, women who were a discriminated social group, joined the profession that was allowing the discrimination of other people and themselves. The female architects were both the object and the subject of violence in the architectural context. The objects of study at the second international scientific conference are the female architects, their way to power within the architectural profession, the influence of the historical context on their career, and the results of their professional activity. Besides, the object of study is the city and basic categories of the feminist theory applied to it: violence, power, discrimination, etc.
The organizers and participants of the conference are eager to identify the phenomenon of violence in architecture and to highlight the role of women in the processes related with violence. The research of violence manifestations in architecture and urban space, as well as preventing them are especially topical now because different social groups are being discriminated in the Ukrainian cities. The reasons underlying certain scandals in architecture and development remain hardly attended. That hardens the stereotypes that the society has about the power and the architects’ role, and results in traumas and gradual stigmatization of people’s aspiration to influence on the decision making process in the city. The organizers want to extensively discuss the problems of inequality, security, and violence in the urban space.
The goal of the cross-disciplinary conference is to highlight and research the phenomenon of violence in architecture and urban space. Besides, the conference aims at stimulating an active interaction between scientists, activists, students, lecturers, and people professionally engaged in architecture and urban planning: the attendees will exchange experience in resolving the issues of spatial discrimination and ensuring the rights that different social groups have for the urban space. Additionally, the conference will serve as a platform for building the culture of sisterhood in the hands-on female architects’ community, and search for the mechanisms of reacting against the urban violence by means of urban planning, which should foster democracy, diversity, and equality.
The structure of the conference:
- Panel 1: Female Architects and Power
- Panel 2: Theoretical feminist categories in respect of the city
- Panel 3: Architectural environment and violence
- Training: The Development of Sisterhood Culture in the Community of Hands-On Female Architects
- Workshop: Inclusive and gender-sensitive urban design
We are inviting: male and female experts in the fields of architecture, art, anthropology, sociology, architecture, and culture; civil activists; representatives of municipalities working with architecture, urbanism, and urban planning; master degree and PhD students; independent researchers interested in presenting their scientific papers at the conference and publishing them thereafter.
In order to attend one of the panels please submit the theses of your research (up to 500 words) and a short CV. In order to attend the training and/or the workshop for hands-on female architects, civil activists, representatives of municipalities working with architecture, urbanism, and urban planning, please submit a short CV and a motivation letter (up to 500 words explaining why you want to attend the training and/or the workshop). The mentioned materials should be sent our email address: modernistki@gmail.com before August 15, 2017.
Working languages: Ukrainian, Russian, English.
Download Сall for Applications.
Organizers: NGO Urban Forms Center with the support of the Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Office in Ukraine, Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, and Zabolotny State Scientific Library of Architecture and Construction. Information partner – Hromadske Radio.
Information about the 1st International Conference “Modernistki. Gender Issues in Art, Architecture and Urban Planning” (2016).