Urban Nature, Architecture and the Modern South Asian City

As a critical nexus of the global climate crisis, South Asia provides urgent and exemplary case studies to examine the ecological, spatial, and material dimensions of contemporary cities. This seminar examines how urban nature is enrolled in and reconfigured by processes of colonialism; caste, class and gender politics; and uneven development — while shaping everyday life, cultural norms and spatial politics. It also foregrounds scholarly and activist perspectives from across South Asia that challenge the destructive processes of capitalist urbanization to reorient ecological and spatial futures. In this course we create a community of learning through close reading and discussion, engaging critical concepts from architecture history, urban studies, political ecology, and environmental history. All students are welcome (undergraduate or graduate, architecture or non-architecture) with interest and engagement in these issues.