Yale Architecture Forum
Esra Akcan
Architecture and the Right to Heal: Resettler Nationalism in the Aftermath of Conflict and Disaster.
Esra Akcan will introduce her new book that explores architecture’s role in healing after conflicts and disasters by discussing buildings and spaces in relation to transitional justice and energy transition. Focusing on lands held by the former Ottoman Empire and putting forth the concept of resettler nationalism as a source of partition and displacement, the book locates spaces of political and ecological harm, and advocates for healing on individual, communal, and planetary levels. It construes healing as a matter of rights and a holistic notion of justice to be achieved retroactively, and calls for instituting accountability and reparations against internal social, state, and business-led violence.
Esra Akcan is a Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Architecture, and a board member at the Institute for Comparative Modernities at Cornell University. Akcan’s research on modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism foregrounds the intertwined histories of Europe, West Asia, and Northeast Africa, and offers new ways to understand architecture’s role in global, social, and environmental justice (More information about her writing and research can be found at https://www.esraakcan.com/)
Architecture Forum is a PhD-led symposium jointly organized by the Departments of Architecture and History of Art, providing an inclusive platform for scholars to present and debate new research on the history of the built environment.