Rewriting Colonial Narratives

In a two-day symposium held by Cornell University’s History of Architecture and Urban Development program, six doctoral students (Chrionni Bernard Decrepito, Sharon Mizbani, Robin Hartanto Honggare, Javairia Shahid, Saumya Pandey, and Paridhi David Massey) presented their ongoing research related to the exploration of the materiality of colonialism in Asia. Constituting a range of topics of study, the presentations delved into previously uninvestigated impacts of certain material elements on the built environment in the pursuit of expanding and/or challenging traditionally limited historical narratives.

Keynote speaker Nida Rehman opened the event with an insightful presentation titled “Eucalypts at the Climate Threshold.” Her research explored the history of the plantation of eucalyptus trees in British-colonized Punjab (for its prophylactic potential and for lumber) and the resulting effects on the region’s climate. Situating these efforts “within the wider context and narratives of colonial forestry” in India, Rehman uses the eucalyptus as a lens to try to unsettle “the continuing legacies of colonial climate change.”

Zooming in on the Philippine islands in the 20th century, Decrepito highlighted the history of the postwar colonial infrastructural projects implemented by the U.S. Bureau of Public Works—serving to “strengthen the foothold of American colonial administration” in the region. In “Water and Memory,” Mizbani discussed the changing hydrological infrastructures of postimperial Istanbul and Tehran in relation to shifts in political, social, and religious ideas around public/private ownership of water systems.

Taking the audience through the architectural history of labor and mobility in Sumatra, Honggare’s presentation, “Infrastructuring Migration,” examined the potential of architecture to be deployed as an agent of oppression. Honggare’s presentation delved into the role played by material networks and infrastructures like colonial ships, immigration offices, and plantation estates built to transport and house indentured Javanese rubber workers.

On the whole, the presentations showcased the power of using seemingly incidental material components as tools in the deconstruction of often implicitly imperialistic written histories.