The Architecture of War: Destruction, Dislocation and Collection Practices

The Architecture of War: Destruction, Dislocation and Collection Practices

Event Date

Location
Hart Hall 3201

Cultural Studies Graduate Group 

Winter 2019 Colloquium Series

The Architecture of War: Destruction, Dislocation and Collection Practices

The Architecture of War critically investigates the relationship between art, architecture and archaeology and militarized visual cullture, analyzed against the historical and political backdrop of imperial and neoliberal processes in the Middle East. Drawing from the fields of postcolonial theory, architecture, archaeology, visual and cultural studies, The Architecture of War sheds light on the United States' 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. It specifically examines the United States' military occupation of Iraqi ancient cities and heritage sites {archeological and architectural) which has resulted in their destruction. It further investigates the U.S. military bases established in relation to the archaeological sites and architectural monuments as a performative spectacle of power. It also assesses the premeditated decision not to safeguard contemporaneous architectural monuments, cultural, and educational institutions, such as museums, libraries, and universities.

The Architecture of War also examines the ideologically driven programmatic destruction of Iraq and the United States' ongoing use of cultural annihilation as a means of conquest, erasure, and reconfiguration of societies' collective memory, history, and identity. It considers the ways in which the U.S. military strategies of disfiguring the representational monuments of Iraq is part and parcel of the dismantling process of the Iraqi nation state, in order to remap, reimagine, and reconstruct space through a long-term agenda in the service of capital and empire. It situates these acts within representational practices of empire building and link them to a colonial legacy, U.S. hegemonic control (geopolitical, socio-economic, and military) of the region as it relates to neoliberal globalization.

Dena Al-Adeeb is the Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the American Studies Department working under the mentorship of Caren Kaplan. Dena also collaborates with the Critical Militarization, Policing. and Security Studies (CRTMIL) research group. Dena received her PhD in Middle Eastern end lslamic Studies, Culture and Representation track, from New York University.

Dena is currently working on two articles developed from her doctoral dissertation and an in-progress book manuscript tentatively titled: The Architecture of War: The US. Invasion of Iraq and its Cultural Engineering Project. The book seeks to critically investigate the relationship
between art, architecture, and archaeology and militarized visual culture, analyzed against the historical and political backdrop of imperial and neoliberal processes in the Middle East.

Link: https://culturalstudies.ucdavis.edu/colloquium