April 14–15, 2023

Critical consideration of the interrelationships between ecologies and ephemeral architectures sets the stage for the theme of the third conference “Imperialism” (April 14-15, 2023) which will address the imperial transformations of the Caribbean and South America and their impact on and entanglement with the larger early modern Atlantic world. Participating scholars in this conference will use studies of ephemeral architecture, especially thatched roofs, to focus attention on processes of imperialism and landscape transformation relating to Indigenous and Black Americans.  In particular, this conference will highlight the complex ways in which Imperial authorities impacted, transformed, and were transformed by, long standing ecological practices and ephemeral architectural knowledge. In doing so, the conference underscores the vital role of ephemeral architecture, such as thatched roofs, in telling histories, even that of global empires, and thus is a reminder of the critical need for the study and preservation of this “Forgotten Canopy.”

Speakers:

Daniela Balanzátegui Moreno, University of Massachusetts Boston, “Black Landscapes of Fugitivity in the Northern Andes of Ecuador”

Maria Paz Gutierrez, University of California, Berkeley, “Fantasy Island: The Other Amazon”

Jayur Madhusudan Mehta, Florida State University, “Indigenous Monumental Architecture of the Mississippi River Delta: Villages, Biodiversity, and Resilience”

Everett Osceola, Cultural Ambassador for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, interviewed by Shannon Speed, University of California, Los Angeles, “The Culture and History of Seminole Traditional Housing with a Focus on the Chickee”

Alice Samson, University of Leicester, “Casas de paja/straw houses: Ephemerality and Permanence in the Indigenous Caribbean”

José Antonio Sierra-Huelsz, Universidad de Guadalajara, “Linking Tourism, Thatched Architecture, and Tropical Forest Management”

Lorena Tezanos Toral, Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), “The Bohío in Nineteenth-Century Cuban Sugar Mills: Creole Power and African Resistance in Late Colonial Cuba”

Dell Upton, University of California, Los Angeles, “What is Impermanence?”

Cheryl White, Anton de Kom University of Suriname, “How the African Diasporic Reimagined the Amazonian Built Environment in the 17th- 19th Century”

Moderators:

Susanna Hecht, University of California, Los Angeles

Ayala Levin, University of California, Los Angeles

Faiza Moatasim, University of Southern California