After successful completion of the course, students are able to develop a research question, to come up with appropriate methods and to conduct independent research. They are able to understand the intersectional relations of gender and migration in the field of architecture and urban research. The seminar is an introduction to basic scientific research and artistic resarch in the field of architecture and urban research. Students conclude the seminar with a written paper of 40.000 characters.
Image: Stadtspaziergang (c) Decolonizing in Vienna!
HISTORY(IES) IN THE CITY
from queer feminist, dekolonial and migrant perspectives
The history(ies) of a city are a contested field! How we understand our past has a bearing on how we can imagine our future. Whose experiences and points of view are being kept and passed on reflects on dominant power relations of our present. For example, the demolition of Südbahnhof – a place of arrival for many migrants in Vienna – left a great gap in the city‘s history of migration. In contrast, the decision to transform another historical site has been time and again postponed. It has been an ongoing discussion, over many years, how the city should deal with the monument of Karl Lueger – a former mayor of Vienna who is known for his antisemitic views.
In this seminar, we will investigate how different histories manifest in the city. Whose history can be found where and how? And whose history is absent? Which histories matter and who is writing them? To find out, we will examine the city as an archive from a queer feminist, decolonizing, and migrant perspective. What can we (un)learn when we reflect on the city‘s history from such positions? What are the documents of women‘s or migrants‘ histories in the city? How can we make the histories of queer life in the city visible?
We will approach these questions by discussing artworks and projects from educational contexts, activism, and culture as well as by going for walks through the city. We will interrogate monuments, sites, and buildings in the city for their histories, work with concepts such as narrative urbanism, consult archives, and make interviews.
Excursions and examples:
Conference: Claiming Spaces 2 / WHOSE HISTORY?, Architekturzentrum Wien
Stadtspaziergang with Decolonizing in Vienna!
Site visit: Geschichtsbaustelle Matzleinsdorferplatz with Tomash Schoiswoh
Installation: Who cleans the city?, FLUC, Secretariate for Ghosts, Archival Politics and Gaps
Exhibition: Nach der Flucht. Aus Ex-Jugoslawien nach Wien - Geschichten von Geflüchteten in den 1990er Jahren, curated by Vida Bakondy and Amila Širbegović
The seminar is based on affirmative pedagogy (according to Rosi Braidotti). The main elements are text, book and lecture discussions, excursions, discursive development of individual interrogation, which also involves methods of drawing. Workshops will allow us to practice the handling of scientific sources, good scientific practice and writing abstracts. Individual meetings are possible if necessary.
