Lectures

What is Solidarity?

Movements, research, and design for another world
WATERLOO ARCHITECTURE ARRISCRAFT 2020-2021 ONLINE SPEAKER SERIES

The 2020-2021 Waterloo Architecture Arriscraft Speaker Series What is Solidarity? asks: how can architects participate in collective, long-term social movements for change and advocate within and beyond professional obligations? The series welcomes activists, researchers, designers, and artists demanding Indigenous land sovereignty, disability justice, abolition of police and prisons, the right to secure housing, non-extractive construction, and access to culturally nourishing food. Each session brings three speakers into conversation about how their work supports Land Back, Disability Justice, Abolition, Right to Remain, Anti-Extractivism and Food Sovereignty, and to imagine how architects might too. This series of discussions will be linked to student-led workshops to facilitate deeper conversations about how solidarities might resonate within the school and beyond. The series is curated by faculty members and students representing student groups Treaty Lands, Global Stories, Bridge, and the Sustainability Collective. These groups and other Waterloo Architecture students have joined uprisings against the racist and exclusionary legacies of colonialism and white supremacy, calling for transformation of their education and chosen profession. By listening to, learning from, and joining movements for change, architecture can collaborate and co-conspire in the making of another world.

Registration is required for all events.
 

LAND BACK
Tuesday, September 22, 6:30 – 8:00pm

Amy Smoke, Co-founder & Organizer, Land Back Camp, Victoria Park, Kitchener
Phil Monture, Nativelands, Six Nations of the Grand River
Eladia Smoke | KaaSheGaaBaaWeak, Smoke Architecture, Laurentian University

BREAKING THE CODE: DESIGNING FOR NON-CONFORMING BODIES
Tuesday, October 20, 6:30 – 8:00pm

Luke Anderson, StopGap Foundation, Toronto
Aimi Hamraie, Critical Design Lab, Vanderbilt University, Nashville
Susan Stryker, University of Arizona, Tucson

ABOLITION
Tuesday, November 10, 6:30 – 8:00pm

Syrus Marcus Ware, Artist, Black Lives Matter, Toronto
Tiffany Lethabo King, Georgia State University, Atlanta
Sara Zewde, Studio Zewde, Harlem, New York City

RIGHT TO REMAIN
Tuesday, January 12, 6:30 – 8:00pm

ANTI-EXTRACTIVISM
Tuesday, February 9, 6:30 – 8:00pm

Joan Kuyek, Mining Watch Co-founder, Ottawa
Martín Arboleda, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile
and other guests

Register for Anti-Extractivism

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
Tuesday, March 9, 6:30 – 8:00pm