What Is In a Clock? Tunis and Its Politics of Menumentality in a Post-Political Age

Date: 

Thursday, December 10, 2020, 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Location: 

Online

Umran-Iheb Guermazi

The Tunisia Office of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University is pleased to invite you to the second session of: “The Urban in North Africa”, a webinar series prepared and moderated by Myriam Amri. 

Session Title:

"WHAT IS IN A CLOCK?  TUNIS AND ITS POLITICS OF MONUMENTALITY IN A POST-POLITICAL AGE"

With: 

Iheb GuermaziArchitect and Urban Historian. Ph.D Candidate in History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

In Dialogue with: 

Myriam Amri, Ph.D Candidate in Anhropology at Harvard University.

This talk will be held online, on Zoom, on Thursday, December 10, 2020, 12:00-1:30 PM (EST) // 6:00-7:30 PM (Tunis)

Register in advance for this webinar here: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9bH0wsG8RtqCujeze4v3Cwhttps://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9bH0wsG8RtqCujeze4v3Cw

 

About the guest speaker:

Iheb Guermazi is an architect, author and urban historian. He lives and works in Tunis where he co-founded with Adnen Ben Tanfous the design and architecture firm ‘Atelier Spicy Chicken.’ Iheb is pursuing his academic research as a PhD candidate in the History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art program (HTC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is affiliated to the Aga Khan program for Islamic Architecture (AKPIA) where his work examines the discourses on art developed in the twentieth century by Western converts to Sufism.

His research interests include the question of sin and morality in the Islamic city, the place of postmodern architectural theory in postcolonial contexts, and issues of identity and representation in architecture. Iheb had previously worked at various architectural practices in France and China. He Holds a Bachelor and a Masters of Architecture (M’Arch 09) from the University of Carthage in Tunisia. As a Fulbright Scholar, Iheb completed a Masters in History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Washington (Ms.Arch 14). Iheb was a guest scholar and critic for different architectural studios organized by the ENAU of Tunis, the University of Washington, Columbia University, Harvard University and MIT.

 

About The Urban in North Africa webinar series:

 

This lecture series is an interdisciplinary discussion platform to hear from scholars, artists, and filmmakers who think with and about urban spaces in North Africa. The series aims to showcase an expansive definition of the “urban” in the region, to examine changing cities, scapes, spaces, and sites, and highlight the various social phenomena that make the complex urban fabric of the region. We seek to locate how the urban is both the setting of transformation in the region and the object of transformation by discussing works that address subject-formations, political economy, spatial practices, and the environment. While urban spaces have long been at the forefront of projects of thought and of creative practices in the region, this series considers the urban “otherwise”, as ripped with intimate affects, political upheavals, and global capitalist transformations. What does it mean to see urban spaces in North Africa as sites of and for theoretical and aesthetic practices?

Questions: cmes_tunisia@fas.harvard.edu.