City Seminar 2007-08
The series of regular seminars will not run during 2008-09.
Information about ad hoc events will be posted as available.
Benjamin Morris(Archaeology)
Heba Mostafa (Architecture)
Uta Staiger (German & Dutch)
Henriette Steiner (Architecture)
Julia Sussner (Architecture)
Advisors: Dr Wendy Pullan (Architecture) & Andrew Webber (German & Dutch)
In recent years a renewed interest in the city and urban studies has emerged across disciplines in the arts, humanities and social sciences. At Cambridge University, this interest has developed separately in different departments, particularly Architecture and the Department of Modern and Medieval Languages. The City Seminar at CRASSH has been established as a forum of exchange between all who share an interest in the city, and to promote new avenues of development.
With this seminar series we wish to encourage discussions that dovetail questions concerning the urban environment, and the ways in which it is culturally constructed and represented. These questions include the political and aesthetic investments in the built environment, the city as a setting for social practices, as well as the representation of the urban in film, visual arts, digital media and literature.
Programme 2007-08
Easter Term 2008
| 6 May |
Screening of Man with a Movie Camera (Dzviga Vertov, 1929)
Moderators: |
| 20 May |
Deborah Howard (History of Art, Cambridge) |
| 3 June |
Marianne Boqvist, Visiting Scholar (Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies)16th century Damascus -Ottoman rule and it's impact on the development of a provincial city |
Lent Term 2008
| 29 January | Franco Bianchini (Professor of Cultural Policy and Planning, Leeds Metropolitan University) A crisis in urban creativity and local distinctiveness? Aspects of the cultural consequences of globalisation for European cities, and of the potential of urban cultural policies |
| 12 February | Trevor Davies (Director, Copenhagen International Theatre; secretary general of Copenhagen '96 Cultural Capital of Europe) Metropolis: temporary arts events as alternative strategies for urban public domains |
| 26 February | Alex Haw Sui-vellance; social bonding through spatial bondage |
| 11 March | Dalibor Vesely (Visiting Lecturer, Dept. of Architecture, Cambridge) The Latent World of the Contemporary City |
See also: Sound and the City: Interdisciplinary Perspectives A one-day conference at the Cambridge University City Seminar
Michaelmas Term 2007
| 16 October | Alex Regier (Research Fellow, King's College, University of Cambridge) The Magic of the Corner: Getting Lost with Walter Benjamin |
| 30 October | Anthony M Tung (former New York City Landmarks Commissioner, Guest Lecturer on urbanism at MIT, and the author of 'Preserving the World's Great Cities: The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis') The Global Conservation Crisis *** PLEASE NOTE: This seminar takes place at the Queen's Building Lecture Theatre, Emmanuel College and is offered in collaboration with the Gates Cambridge Trusts' Distinguished Lecture Series |
| POSTPONED | Dalibor Vesely (Lecturer, Dept. of Architecture, University of Cambridge) The Latent World of the Contemporary City *** PLEASE NOTE: This lecture will take place in Lent Term, with precise details to be announced. |
| 27 November | Dominic Perring (Director, Centre for Applied Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University College London) Conflict and recovery: archaeology and planning in post-war Beirut |
