Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi
Assistant Professor; Barnard College, Columbia University
Joseph Godlewski
Associate Professor of Architecture & Senior Research Associate, Maxwell African Scholars Union; Syracuse University
Book Conversation: Architecture of Migration and The Architecture of the Bight of Biafra
This conversation will highlight two recent monographs about architecture and spatial practices on the African continent. Anooradha Iyer Sidiqqi’s book Architecture of Migration: The Dadaab Refugee Camps and Humanitarian Settlement (Duke University Press, 2023) analyzes the history, visual rhetoric, and spatial politics of the Dadaab refugee camps in Northeastern Kenya, as an epistemological vantage point in the African and Islamic worlds. Joseph Godlewsk’s book The Architecture of the Bight of Biafra: Spatial Entanglements (Routledge, 2024) examines the historical intersection of race and the built environment in southeastern Nigeria from the early modern period to the present. The authors will present the findings from their research, offer questions, and speculate on the implications of their work for further inquiry.
