Identity, Sovereignty, and Global Politics in the Building of Baghdad: From Revolution through the Gulf War and Beyond Conference at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, September 18-20, 2014

Using the history of urban development in Baghdad as a reference point, this conference examines the extent to which interventions intended to modernize and integrate different populations in the city were part of a larger process of negotiating competing visions of political economy, sovereignty, and identity in post-WWII Iraq. By gathering political scientists, architectural and urban historians, and scholars of Iraq and the larger Arab world, the conference engages theoretical and empirical questions about the ruptures and continuities of Baghdad’s urban and political history, using the built environment of the city as a canvas for understanding struggles over Iraq’s position in a global context shaped by ongoing war tensions (from the Cold War to the Gulf War and beyond) to more recent Middle East conflicts. The full day event (September 19) will be preceded by a Keynote Panel held the prior evening, focused on the relationship between war and urbanism, a theme that will re-emerge comparatively and historically in subsequent day’s panels which focus on a range of theoretical, historical, and practical dilemmas facing Baghdad and other cities in the region. The conference ends with a half-day discussion of the urban planning, design, and governance challenges facing the city now and in the near future.

Thursday, September 18 | Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

6:30pm – 8:00pm

Keynote Panel Discussion: War and Urbanism

Presentations by: Stuart Elden, University of Warwick, Department of Politics and International Studies

Todd Reisz, Yale University School of Architecture

Commentaries by: Pierre Belanger, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design

Neil Brenner, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design

Friday, September 19 | Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

8:30am – 9:00am

Coffee and Registration

9:00am – 9:15am

Welcome

Diane Davis, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Professor of Urbanism and Development and Weatherhead Center Associate; and Łukasz Stanek, Manchester University, Manchester Architecture Research Center

9:15am – 11:00am

Panel 1. Iraq in Regional, National, and Global Context

Chair: Roger Owen, Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Speakers: Nasser Rabbat, MIT, School of Architecture and Planning, Aga Khan Program Director

M. Christine Boyer, Princeton University, School of Architecture

Kanan Makiya, Brandeis University, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Alaa Al-Tamimi, former Mayor of Baghdad (2004-2005), President at Urban Reform Center Inc., Toronto

11:00am – 12:45pm

Panel 2. Modernism in Baghdad: Applied, Adapted, Abandoned

Chair: Amin Alsaden, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design

Speakers: Neil Levine, Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, History of Art and Architecture

Łukasz Stanek, Manchester University, Manchester Architecture Research Center

Caecilia Pieri, French Institute for the Near East (Beirut), Urban Observatory

Maha Malaiki, Duhok University (Northern Iraq), Architecture and Spatial Planning Department

1:30pm – 3:15pm

Panel 3. Sovereignty and the Urban Built Environment: Comparative Reflections

Chair: Łukasz Stanek, Manchester University, Manchester Architecture Research Center

Speakers: Timothy Hyde, MIT Department of Architecture

Mona Fawaz, Radcliffe Institute and American University of Beirut

Sibel Bozdogan, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design

Mona Damluji, Wheaton College, Art and Art History

3:15pm – 3:45pm

Afternoon Plenary: Reflections on Urban Insurgency

David Kilcullen, Caerus Associates, Washington D.C.

Introduction by Steven Bloomfield, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

4:00pm – 6:15pm

Panel 4. War and Urbanism Roundtable: Baghdad and Beyond

Chair: John Tirman, MIT Center for International Studies

Speakers: Dina Khoury, George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs

Roger Petersen, MIT Department of Political Science

Harith Al-Qarawee, Radcliffe Institute

Said Alsaady, Director General of Planning at Mayoralty of Baghdad

6:30pm – 7:30pm

Cocktail Reception, CGIS Café, CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA

Saturday, September 20 | Stubbins, Room 112, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

Half-day Workshop on Rebuilding Baghdad: Where to Now?

9:00am – 10:30am

Roundtable 1. Governance Challenges

10:30am – 12:00pm

Roundtable 2. Urban Planning and Design Challenges

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Closing remarks

Audience

Free and open to the public. Students and scholars as well as practitioners and decision-makers from a range of interdependent disciplines are welcome to attend.

Organized by

Professor Diane Davis, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Professor of Urban Planning and Design, and Weatherhead Center Associate; Co-organizers: Dr. Łukasz Stanek, University of Manchester, Manchester Architecture Research Center; Phillip Baker, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Sponsored by

Harvard University Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Co-Sponsors

MIT Center for International Studies; Harvard University Graduate School of Design Urban Theory Lab; Harvard University Graduate School of Design Master of Design Studies Risk and Resilience Track; Harvard University Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture.