HS15: Urban Natures
About
This interdisciplinary Working Group explores how natural landscapes and species are brought into urban contexts through art, architecture, design, and human life. What weedy forms of life take root in diverse urban contexts?
Open to New People
Active since: 2022
- Syracuse University
- Cornell University
Collaborative Goals
In our second year, we hope to build on our past year's work by:
- Providing a place for interdisciplinary exchange;
- Providing a venue for scholars (particularly junior scholars) to share and receive constructive feedback on works in progress; and
- Building toward expanded collaborations between colleagues in and beyond the Central New York region. New members are always welcome.
Group Organizers
Esra Akcan
Professor; Michael A. McCarthy Professor of Architectural Theory, Department of Architecture, Cornell University
Group Members
- Lily Wong, Harry der Boghosian Fellow, Syracuse University
- Margaretha Haughwout, Assistant Professor, Colgate University
- Alex Nading, Associate Professor, Cornell University
Non Corridor Members
- Berin Golonu, Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo
Activities
Spring 2023 Presentations - Works in Progress
May 8, 2023, 10 a.m.
The Botanical City - Reading Group
Oct. 20, 2022, 2:30 p.m.
Group Outcomes
While some of us knew each other before the group began, our meetings provided the opportunity for new connections between junior faculty at Cornell, Syracuse, Colgate, and University at Buffalo. I think the group was especially valuable for a non-Corridor member, Berin Golonu. Her research overlaps considerably with faculty at Syracuse and Cornell but her position at University at Buffalo leaves her without regular interlocutors. We hope that future meetings will lead to more impacts.
New collaborations
One of the concrete outcomes of our two meetings was a planned collaboration between Hammond and Golonu. The two meetings provided them with an opportunity to continue discussing shared interests and to plan to co-write an academic journal article in Fall 2024.
New reading lists
The interdisciplinary nature of our group (including geographers, art historians, anthropologists, and artists) means that we all draw on different references and approaches. The books purchased with Corridor funds helped to expand our respective literatures and to lay the groundwork for future shared conversation.