BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:547@ssa.ccny.cuny.edu DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221006T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221006T193000 DTSTAMP:20240523T153358Z URL:https://ssa.ccny.cuny.edu/events/fall-2022-sciame-lecture-series-c-j-a lvarez/ SUMMARY:Fall 2022 Sciame Lecture Series: C.J. Alvarez DESCRIPTION:This lecture is held in-person and is part of the Fall 2022 Sci ame Lecture Series\, titled "Border Crossings: Architecture and Migration in the Americas."\n\n \;\n\nC.J. Alvarez is the author of Border Land\ , Border Water: A History of Construction on the U.S.-Mexico Divide\, the first broad-sweeping history of building projects on the border. He is cur rently writing a book about the history of the Chihuahuan Desert\, the lar gest and least-known desert in North America. He grew up in Las Cruces\, New Mexico\, studied art history at Stanford and Harvard\, and received hi s doctorate in history from the University of Chicago. He is currently an associate professor in the department of Mexican American and Latina/o Stu dies at the University of Texas at Austin.\n\n"The Natural and Built Envir onments of the U.S.-Mexico Border": The political divide that separates th e United States from Mexico passes through six different ecological region s. Each one of these “ecoregions” has a distinctive climate\, specific configurations of plants and animals\, and unique topography. The politic al border does not conform in any meaningful way to these environmental bo undaries. The political divide does\, however\, commandeer two rivers -- t he Colorado and the Rio Grande -- and for part of their lengths demands th at they adhere to the predictability and fixity required of modern politic al borders. In his book Border Land\, Border Water: A History of Construct ion on the U.S.-Mexico Divide\, Alvarez explains the border as a history o f accretion\, an ever-more complicated system of barrier infrastructure on land and hydraulic engineering projects on the rivers. Today\, the enviro nmental unity of border regions has been eclipsed by the built environment which has\, in turn\, impoverished our imaginations. But his current rese arch and book project go beyond the built environment\, deeper into time a nd further into the realms of the nonhuman world. This talk is about the r elationship of political borders and environmental boundaries\, the contra st between contemporary political developments and the multimillennial his tory of environmental regions and rivers\, and the tension between anthrop ocentrism and ecocentrism.\n\nChair Sean Weiss will introduce the speaker. \n\nSuggested reading: Alvarez's book Border Land\, Border Water: A Histor y of Construction on the U.S.-Mexico Divide (University of Texas Press\, 2019)\, or\, alternatively\, for an article-length piece with some of the key ideas of the book\, "Police\, Waterworks\, and the Construction of the U.S.-Mexico Border\, 1924–1954\," Western Historical Quarterly\, Volume 50\, Issue 3\, Autumn 2019\, Pages 233–256.\n\n"Border Crossings: Archi tecture and Migration" in the Americas presents meditations on the topic of migration from nontraditional\, creative\, and interdisciplinary perspe ctives. The distinguished speakers -- architects\, landscape architects\, architecture historians\, social historians\, a philosopher\, an anthropol ogist\, and an attorney -- question conventions\, especially the conceptua lization of migration as linear. They frame migration as a multivalent pro cess\, considering the lived realities and material conditions of migratio n\, historically and in the present. Migration in the Americas is more tha n just the movement and resettlement of bodies\, numbers that cross lines and appear/disappear in different places. Migration is not merely (dis)pla cement\, it is also a metamorphosis. Migrants are human beings who are tra nsformed to the core by their movement\, and they transform not only their places of departure and arrival\, but the entire space that is filled wit h their journeys.\n\n \;\n\nAll lectures are free\, open to the public \, and held in the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture Sciame Auditorium with remote option available. See https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/ret urn-campus for current requirements for in-person visitors.\n\nFor remote viewing via Zoom\, please register here.\n\n \;\n\nThis lecture series is made possible by the Spitzer Architecture Fund and the generous suppor t of Frank Sciame ’74\, CEO of Sciame Construction.\n\n \; CATEGORIES:Archived Video,Events,Lectures,Sciame Lectures LOCATION:Sciame Auditorium (Room 107)\, 141 Convent Avenue\, New York\, NY\ , 10031\, United States GEO:40.8177595;-73.95047339999996 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=141 Convent Avenue\, New Yo rk\, NY\, 10031\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Sciame Auditori um (Room 107):geo:40.8177595,-73.95047339999996 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20220313T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR