[1] Social Control
[2] Syncretic Scientific Knowledge in Sacred Colonial Architecture
[3] Interconnecting West and East Asia: A Transcultural Study of the Architecture of the Dead


[1]
From: Leslie Topp
Subject: CFP: Social Control
Deadline: June 8, 2021

This session confronts a problem in the scholarship on modern architecture that has remained largely unarticulated, but that is growing more pertinent as well as vexed. The idea that socially engaged modernism might also be socially controlling, and that this might be an aspect of its operation that would be worth studying, is something scholars and critics seem nervous about. To talk about architecture and modernity in terms of power is to be Foucauldian; to be Foucauldian – it is assumed – is to unveil sinister technologies of control lying behind stated good intentions. Such an approach sits uncomfortably alongside a desire to find value in socially-engaged modernism and to promote it as a model for contemporary social architecture.

The session seeks to offer ways out of this bind by developing new frameworks for the study of social control in modern architecture and urbanism, and asking new questions. "Social control" refers to the processes by which the behavior of individuals or groups is regulated, and deviance both constructed and confronted. There are many gaps in our understanding of the particular ways in which architecture participates in social control, through spatial configurations, manipulation of sightlines and placement of boundaries, for instance, or through emotional and symbolic associations. "Visions of social control," to use sociologist Stanley Cohen's usefully plural formulation, vary dramatically according to particular geographical, national and political contexts, and architecture will interact with those contexts in highly varying ways. Architecture can also be used to nuance, and even soften and compensate for elements of social control, strategically incorporating elements meant to ensure – or evoke – liberty, individualism and privacy.

Proposals studying all geographical regions are welcome, within the dates 1880-1980, the period of the initial development, flourishing and incipient decline of welfare state policies and architectures.

Abstracts (300 words max) along with a 2-page CV should be submitted by 11.59pm CDT on 8 June 2021 to l.toppbbk.ac.uk. See the website for submission instructions.

Leslie Topp, Birkbeck, University of London


[2]
From: Iacopo Benincampi
Subject: CFP: Syncretic Scientific Knowledge in Sacred Colonial Architecture
Deadline: June 8, 2021
iacopo.benincampiuniroma1.it

Syncretic Scientific Knowledge in Sacred Colonial Architecture (session Chairs: Angela Lombardi, University of Texas at San Antonio; and Iacopo Benincampi, Sapienza University of Rome)

The Society of Architectural Historians is now accepting abstracts for its 75th Annual International Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 27–May 1, 2022.
The intention of this thematic session is to expand current research on the role of syncretism in the development of sacred architecture and settlements. We seek papers that address the relationship between native cultural practices and scientific knowledge, in the seventeenth and eighteenth-century Spanish Colonial World and within the context of the evangelization of indigenous peoples in the New World.
Previous studies on Western architectural traditions have included important contributions to scientific knowledge, embodied in European architecture since antiquity and the Middle Ages. Other studies, like those of Anthony Aveni, focus extensively on ancient astronomical practices in the Americas, and, specifically, research into the historical astronomy of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures.
We welcome papers taking an interdisciplinary approach on the use of syncretic scientific knowledge for the construction of sacred spaces and places. Papers might highlight the syncretism between Pre-Colombian native culture and European traditions and explore how Colonial architecture was intentionally shaped by the overlapping of the two.
For example, in Californian and Texan Franciscan missions, the churches and their placement on the site were designed utilizing astronomical mathematics: sunlight illuminating and spotlighting specific areas on predetermined days and times, hence synchronizing diurnal rhythms to the principal feast days during the liturgical year, marking seasonal changes. In this way, the indigenous catechumen could experience a divinized world, coinciding with aboriginal calendrical systems, rooted in Mesoamerican traditions.
This thematic session, therefore, welcomes articles in which scientific knowledge and multifaceted indigenous cultural practices were adopted as instruments of syncretism to give shape and meaning to sacred architecture.

The deadline has been extended; please submit an abstract no later than Tuesday, June 8, 2021, at 11:59 pm CDT.

Submission Guidelines:
Abstracts must be under 300 words.
- The title cannot exceed 65 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
- Abstracts and titles must follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
- Only one abstract per conference by an author or co-author may be submitted.
- A maximum of three (3) authors per abstract will be accepted.
- Please attach a two-page CV in PDF format.

Abstracts are to be submitted online using the link below.
https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/login?redirect=/stages/2562/submitter


[3]
From: Deniz Karakas, dkarakastulane.edu
Subject: CFP: Interconnecting West and East Asia: A Transcultural Study of the Architecture of the Dead
Deadline: June 8, 2021

The Society of Architectural Historians has decided to extend the deadline for paper proposals for its 75th Annual International Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 27–May 1, 2022. If you are interested in the panel below, please submit an abstract no later than 11:59 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, June 8, 2021.

Interconnecting West and East Asia: A Transcultural Study of the Architecture of the Dead

In the wake of a growing interest in the global approach to architectural history, this session seeks to widen the scope of current research by conducting a transcultural and comparative analysis of the funerary construction practices in West and East Asia from the turn of the Common Era to the Early Modern Period. With the aim to open up a dialogue between scholars of the ancient and early modern period, and the area studies of West Asia (Islamic, Middle East, Mediterranean) and East Asia (China, Korea, Japan), we propose to investigate the connectivity between West and East Asian architecture through the lens of the “architecture of the dead,” including burial structures, tomb decorations, construction techniques, and the role funerary architecture played in negotiating the social relations.

Works that explore interactional, contrasting, and shared strategies between West and East Asian funerary architecture in the process of their construction, reception, and appropriation are welcomed. We are particularly interested in research that concerns women's visibility and that raises questions of how funerary architecture shaped or challenged the existing gender norms. We ask how the mortuary structure and tomb furnishing shed light on the ethnic and religious identity of the deceased, as well as the communities involved in the construction of the burials. We are also looking for studies that address the social dimension of the tombs, situating burials at the center of the social network among different walks of life and between the living and the dead. Lastly, we welcome research probing into the engagement between manmade funerary architecture and the natural landscape, in the hope of highlighting the co-dependency between humans and nature.

Session Chairs: Fan Zhang, Tulane University; and Deniz Karakas, Tulane University

Submission Guidelines:
- Abstracts must be under 300 words.
- The title cannot exceed 65 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
- Abstracts and titles must follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
- Only one abstract per conference by an author or co-author may be submitted.
- A maximum of three (3) authors per abstract will be accepted.

Please attach a two-page CV in PDF format.

Abstracts are to be submitted online using the link below.
https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/login?redirect=/stages/2562/submitter

Submission Deadline [EXTENDED]: TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2021, 11:59 pm CDT

Please check the website (https://www.sah.org/2022/call-for-papers) for further details.