News & Events
AKDC Seeks Applications for Collections Curator
The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT is seeking applications for the position of Collections Curator, a versatile and exciting new role for a specialist in Islamic art and/or architecture who will be responsible for researching AKDC’s extensive physical collections and making them accessible to a range of audiences. The Collections Curator will lead projects describing and disseminating the unique archival holdings the center, creating and developing collaborative projects of a scholarly nature, and generating public events and projects around the collections. The role will also design and carry out workflows that document, preserve, and render our collections accessible and...
AKDC Program Head to edit volume on the topic of restitution of cultural artifacts
AKDC Program Head Dr. Nur Sobers-Khan is one of the curators of §RETURN, HEAL, REDISTRIBUTE, an upcoming issue of ROOTS§ROUTES a multilingual, independent quarterly magazine of visual culture published in Italy. The focus of the issue curated by Dr. Sobers-Khan, Domenico Sergi, Anna Chiara Cimoli and Giulia Grechi is Restitution, an important and timely issue in contemporary museum practice, the debate of which often serves to expose “deeply rooted colonial epistemologies.” In Europe and the US, “one of the most frequent objections to restitution is the weak scientific infrastructure of the communities where objects would be returned,” a premise that...
AKDC Staff Contribute to New Book on the Religious Architecture of Islam
Matt Saba (Visual Resources Librarian at AKDC) and Michael Toler (Archnet Content Manager) have contributed two essays to The Religious Architecture of Islam, an encyclopedic, multi-author study of mosques, madrasas, saints’ shrines, and funerary architecture associated with the religion of Islam. The book aims to be global in scale, and its first volume—published in November 2021—covers Asia and Australia, while a forthcoming volume will cover Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The two-volume series is published by Brepols and edited by Hasan-Uddin Khan and Kathryn Moore. Matt contributed an essay on funerary architecture in Iraq under the Abbasids and their successor...
CFP: Cities and Migration: Visual approaches to the challenges of increasingly diverse cities
Beniamino Polimeni, Lecturer in Architecture at the Leicester School of Architecture at De Montfort University and Michael A. Toler, Archnet Content Manager in AKDC@MIT, will be guest editors of DISEGNARECON ISSUE Vol 15, No 28 (2022) on the topic of “Cities and Migration: Visual approaches to the challenges of increasingly diverse cities.” According to the Call for Papers, the issue: will highlight new architectural and landscape/urban planning responses on migration, including strategies for reinforcing social inclusion and urban diversity. Priority will be given to papers based on an argument that analyses visual and material culture; look at issues of migration...
Online Panel: Architecture: The Search for Identity, Justice & Continuity
The Opening Public Panel of the West<>Africa Architecture Biennale Inspired by the 1998 lecture of the Nigerian architect and educator, David Aradeon, this public panel seeks to understand the concepts of Iidentity, justice and continuity through the lenses of three architects: David Aradeon (Nigeria), Aziza Chaouni (Morocco) and Mokena Makeka (South Africa). Registration is Required (Deadline 20 February 2022): bit.ly/OpeningWABiennale Format: Panel, Virtual Platform: Zoom (You will receive a link before the event on February 20 Duration: 120 mins Free and Open to the public. Thank you to our supporters: Studio 4, Aziza Chaouni Projects, Makeka Design Lab.