Words Otherwise: Writing Architecture with Queer Feminists of Color
Elective Thesis (052-0833-23)
Organizer: Chair of Prof. Delbeke
Lecturers: Niloofar Rasooli
Image: Unknown, undated, "Two female prostitutes - their clothing and makeup." Repository of the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies, (275-131274)
Block Course 23.10 - 27.10
11:45 -17:30
HIL E 67
How can our writing be different if we write with the toolkits of queer feminism? How can this practice of writing help us to imagine an otherwise for the spaces we inhabit, draw, invade, or leave behind? This course will critically approach these questions, centering the practice of collective and creative writing, focusing on the radical writings of queer feminists of color, particularly in Arabic and Farsi.
If the built environment can be the passive embodiment of the various structures of power, memory, and dictation, then to deconstruct these structures—from their core—we need to deconstruct the words and grammar we adopt in thinking about architecture; we need to queer them. Taking this concern as the core objective, this course is designed to challenge how we read, discuss, circulate, and cite critical texts in architecture schools. As to queer writing, we need to rethink reading. Drawing on the act of writing collectively—with objects, memories, feelings, texts, and spaces—this course aims to bring writing architecture into a shared practice of solidarity, critical imagination, and radical hope. The learning outcome of this course will enable students to practice collective writing and editing, as well as translating the critical thoughts of feminisms of color in their thinking and writing about the built environment.
With guests invited:
Nour Almazidi (she/her) writer, researcher, and a Ph.D. Candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Department of Gender Studies (via Zoom)
Ale/Sandra Cane (she/they), author, poet, and queer studies researcher (in person)
Julien Lafontaine Carboni (they/them), architect, activist, researcher; EPFL and ETHZ (in person)
Niloofar Rasooli
Organizer: Chair of Prof. Delbeke
Lecturers: Niloofar Rasooli
Image: Unknown, undated, "Two female prostitutes - their clothing and makeup." Repository of the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies, (275-131274)
Block Course 23.10 - 27.10
11:45 -17:30
HIL E 67
How can our writing be different if we write with the toolkits of queer feminism? How can this practice of writing help us to imagine an otherwise for the spaces we inhabit, draw, invade, or leave behind? This course will critically approach these questions, centering the practice of collective and creative writing, focusing on the radical writings of queer feminists of color, particularly in Arabic and Farsi.
If the built environment can be the passive embodiment of the various structures of power, memory, and dictation, then to deconstruct these structures—from their core—we need to deconstruct the words and grammar we adopt in thinking about architecture; we need to queer them. Taking this concern as the core objective, this course is designed to challenge how we read, discuss, circulate, and cite critical texts in architecture schools. As to queer writing, we need to rethink reading. Drawing on the act of writing collectively—with objects, memories, feelings, texts, and spaces—this course aims to bring writing architecture into a shared practice of solidarity, critical imagination, and radical hope. The learning outcome of this course will enable students to practice collective writing and editing, as well as translating the critical thoughts of feminisms of color in their thinking and writing about the built environment.
With guests invited:
Nour Almazidi (she/her) writer, researcher, and a Ph.D. Candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Department of Gender Studies (via Zoom)
Ale/Sandra Cane (she/they), author, poet, and queer studies researcher (in person)
Julien Lafontaine Carboni (they/them), architect, activist, researcher; EPFL and ETHZ (in person)
Contact
Niloofar Rasooli
