A Lens Onto Ourselves: Gaza and a reckoning for urban planning
How can planning confront the expansionist violence of settler colonialism in Palestine, Lebanon, and beyond? What transformations are necessary to create those conditions?
Please consider joining students and faculty at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) for a two-day symposium titled A Lens Onto Ourselves: Gaza and a reckoning for urban planning. Talks will begin the afternoon of Friday, February 21st, and continue through Saturday, February 22nd. We ask that participants plan to attend the entire event if possible. Learn more and register here (please note that you may be waitlisted due to limited capacity).
For more information, contact the symposium organizing committee at alensontoourselves@gmail.com.
This event is co-sponsored by: MIT Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture (AKPIA), MIT Global Health and Medical Humanities Initiative (GHMHI), DUSP Displacement Research Action Network (DRAN), DUSP Bemis Fund, DUSP City Design and Development (CDD), DUSP International Development Group (IDG), DUSP Housing Community and Economic Development (HCED), DUSP Racially Just Research Initiative, MIT CSF, MIT MSA, MIT Mobin, Mipsterz, MIT Data + Feminism Lab, Palestine at MIT, MIT Jews for Collective Liberation and Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative at Religion and Public Life Program at Harvard Divinity School.
Program:
Friday, February 21
Opening Remarks
Speaker: Erica James (MIT)
Panel 1: History of Intervention and Planning in Palestine
Speakers: Jude Abdelqader (Columbia University), Heba Alnajada (Boston University), Yosef Jabareen (Technion – IIT), Maha Samman (Al-Quds University)
Moderator: Nasser Rabbat (MIT)
Panel 2: Critiques of Past Rebuilding Efforts
Speakers: Nadi Abusaada (American University), Mamoun Besaiso (Level 5 Consulting Group)
Moderator: Faranak Miraftab (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Lightning Talk: Gaza - Towards Rights-based Rebuilding
Speaker: Balakrishnan Rajagopal, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing (MIT)
Keynote: How can technology be used for repair and reconstruction? Introducing "Phoenix of Gaza XR”
Speakers: Naim Aburaddi (University of Colorado Boulder), Ahlam Muhtaseb (California State University, San Bernardino)
Saturday, February 22
Panel 3: Fostering Connections and Community
Invited Guests: Nagham Al Baba (MIT), Jumanah Bawazir (Forensic Architecture), Stephen Friend (Oxford University), Colleagues from Gaza (Abed El-Fatah M. Shehada and Amir Yasin)
Moderators: Erica James (MIT), Ceasar McDowell (MIT)
Panel 4: Memory Justice: Local Perspectives
Speakers: Naim Aburaddi (University of Colorado Boulder), Nur Jabarin (Columbia University), Mohamad Nahleh (Ohio State University), Researchers from Riwaq (Dana Abbas and Yousef Taha)
Moderator: Delia Wendel (MIT)
Panel 5: Temporalities of Repair and Imagining Liberated Futures
Speakers: Nour Joudah (University of California, Los Angeles), Ahlam Muhtaseb (California State University, San Bernardino), Deema Totah (University of Iowa)
Moderator: Jean-Luc Pierite (MIT)
Community Debrief and Symposium Closing
Speakers: Devin Atallah (UMass Boston), Ceasar McDowell (MIT)