Resource: Decentering the Canon in the Architectural Library

Panel Recording: Decentering the Canon in the Architectural Library

The panel Decentering the Canon in the Architectural Library was organized by the Ricker Art Library and School of Architecture at the University of Illinois. It highlights the link between library collections, bibliographies, course content, and pedagogy.

Please see description of panel below and click here to watch the recording.

“The library collects materials that have filtered through such canonizing forces as higher education and the publishing ecosystem. Can the library broaden the canon, or does it merely reinforce it? What critical interventions might we make to resist our canonizing tendencies, for today and or tomorrow?

“Decentering the Canon in the Architectural Library” is a panel designed to addressed some of these issues.
Our panelists include expertise from a broad range of disciplines within architecture, including architectural history, museums, and practice:

Charles L. Davis II, Assistant Professor of Architecture History and Criticism, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Aneesha Dharwadker, Assistant Professor Illinois School of Architecture + Department of Landscape Architecture University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Leila Anna Wahba, Deputy Director & Culture Curator, Architecture + Design Museum, Los Angeles

The panel was moderated by Soumya Dasgupta, PhD. candidate in Architecture (History and Theory) in the Illinois School of Architecture, and Emilee Mathews, Head of Ricker Library of Architecture and Art, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

This event was hosted by the Ricker Library of Architecture and Art on March 23, 2021, in partnership with the Illinois School of Architecture; funding is provided by the University of Illinois Library Innovation Fund and co-sponsored by the Humanities Research Institute.”

This panel was presented with the University of Illinois Library’s #from margin to center initiative which works to actively reframe library materials to better represent the voices and work of nondominant experiences.