2010 Conference

2010 Writing Cities Conference
September 30 – October 2, 2010 | Cambridge, MA

When spaces speak, what do they say?
In Fall 2010 MIT School of Architecture and Planning, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Harvard Law School hosted the third annual interdisciplinary graduate student Writing Cities Workshop around the topic “When spaces speak, what do they say?” Authors were given a paper other than their own to present, requiring one author to summarize another author’s research, and to then raise questions for all of those in the workshop to respond to. This process opened up exchange among the workshop participants, and tasked each participant to develop a critical and directive approach to all of the papers explored. This process of shared critical engagement was taken further during the review and redrafting of papers. Participants were required to reconsider their own papers in light of the workshop discussions, and to rewrite them for peer and faculty reviews. Writing was refined through an iterative process, where each participant was simultaneously writer, reader and reviewer. The writing thus emerged as a collaborative endeavor: from the individual workspaces of respective authors, to the face-to-face interactions in the workshop, and the long-distance exchanges afforded by the internet. The workshop was structured around approximately 20 papers, and a keynote lecture by Suketu Mehta.

Organizing Committee:
Daniel Berkovits, Harvard Law School
Nicholas Marantz, MIT DUSP
Dietmar Offenhuber, MIT DUSP
Jared Policicchio, Harvard Law School
Chris Rogacz, Harvard GSD
Orkan Telhan, MIT Architecture
Iddo Ginat, Harvard GSD

Advisory committee:
Ute Meta Bauer, MIT Art, Culture and Technology
Gerald Frug, Harvard Law School
Richard Sennett, London School of Economics
Fran Tonkiss, London School of Economics
Larry Vale, MIT Department of Urban Studies

 

Conference Program:

Thursday, September 30, 2010
MIT Media Lab Extension Auditorium

7:00pm Writing Cities Keynote Address by Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found; Associate Professor of Journalism, New York University.

Friday, October 1, 2010
MIT Building E14-244

8:30am Discussion on the Future of Writing Cities

9:30am Discussion of Papers

12:30pm Lunch

1:30pm Discussion of Papers

8:00pm Dinner, Casablanca @ Harvard Sq.

Saturday, October 2, 2010
Harvard Law School, Hauser Hall 105

9:00am Discussion of Papers

12:30pm Lunch

1:30pm Discussion of Papers