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Through the critical re-examination of architectural histories and encounters with modernity outside dominant cultural, geographical, theoretical and professional territories, this module encourages students to question conventional architectural historiographies. The module begins by introducing the notion of modernity and its impact on the construction of architectural history as well as other types of related histories in the twentieth century. Seminars will introduce specific themes and theories, including post-colonialism, sub-altern studies, transcultrality, and multiple modernities, and employ these in the analysis of different sites of artistic, architectural and urban production in a global context. Specific sites based on previous publications and ongoing award-winning research include: post-Meiji era Japan (the first non-Western country to modernise); the contested territory of Russian and Japanese occupied Manchuria and Manchukuo in northeast China; colonial and post-colonial modernities in Africa; and the development of an architectural profession in China throughout the twentieth century. Beyond the critique of modernist historiography globally, the seminars encourage students to also apply these methods to European and British contexts through cities such as Gdynia and Kaunas, and alternative modernisms in Britain through the architecture of Charles Holden and McMorran & Whitby, as well as considering architectural history’s role in framing notions of heritage and identity.

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This module is aimed at students interested in critically engaging in social and cultural architectural practices across historical, theoretical and design disciplines in a global context. It advocates a reassessment of architectural historiography in the twenty-first century, by providing a historical, critical and scholarly approach to interdisciplinary studies of modernity in relation to architectural encounters both outside the West and outside conventional Modernist discourses. Students are encouraged to question established architectural histories and dominant historical narratives, especially those founded in the twentieth century and associated with encounters with modernity globally. Through a series of examples from different cultural, geographic, thematic, disciplinary and theoretical contexts, students engaged in this module will acquire the skills to critique the writing, construction, interpretation and dissemination of architectural history and theory in a global context and, through their own original research and writing, propose alternative histories.

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