Four Cities in Modernity: Bombay, Buenos Aires, London, New York

April 20-22 , 2006

THURSDAY APRIL 20: Moore B03

  • Reception 5:30pm - Hanover Inn
  • Keynote Address 7:00pm - DAVID HARVEY, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center, City University of New York

FRIDAY APRIL 21: Wrenn Room at Sanborn House

PANEL ONE - 9:30am - 12:30pm NEW YORK

  • Paper One 9:30am - 10:00 am - Max Page, Associate Professor of Architecture and History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
  • Paper Two 10:00am - 10:30am - Craig Wilder, Professor of History, Dartmouth College
  • Coffee Break 10:30am - 11:00am
  • Paper Three 11:00am -11:30am - Arlene Davila, Associate Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, New York University
  • Discussion 11:30am -12:30pm

PANEL TWO - 2:30pm - 5:30pm BUENOS AIRES

  • Paper One 2:30pm - 3:00pm - Kristin Ruggiero, Professor of History, Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Wisconsin
  • Paper Two 3:00pm - 3:30pm - Sergio Miceli, Professor of Sociology, University of Sao Paulo
  • Coffee Break 3:30pm - 4:00pm
  • Paper Three 4:00pm -4:30pm - Jorge Francisco Liernur, Director, Center for Contemporary Architectur, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires
  • Discussion 4:30pm -5:30pm

SATURDAY APRIL 22: Moore B03

PANEL THREE 9:30am - 12:30pm BOMBAY

  • Paper One 9:30am - 10:00am - Carol Breckenridge, Associate Professor of History, New School University
  • Paper Two 10:00am - 10:30am - Kaushik Bhaumik, Research Fellow, Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies, Open University
  • Coffee Break 10:30am - 11:00am
  • Paper Three 11:00am -11:30am - Raj Chandavarkar, Director, Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge University
  • Discussion 11:30am - -12:30pm

PANEL FOUR 2:30pm - 5:30pm LONDON

  • Paper One 2:30pm - 3:00pm - Jenny Robinson, Professor of Urban Geography, Open University
  • Paper Two 3:00pm - 3:30pm - Andrew McCann, Associate Professor of English, Dartmouth College
  • Coffee Break 3:30pm - 4:00pm
  • Paper Three 4:00pm - 4:30pm - Jane Rendell, Reader in Architecture and Art, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
  • Discussion 4:30pm - 5:30pm

The conference convenes an international group of scholars, working in various disciplines, to examine modernity as it formed and transformed urban life between the late nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century in Bombay (Mumbai), Buenos Aires, London, and New York. Modernity will be a concept under debate here. Our aim is to engage scholars in discussions, first, of distinct modernities that have emerged in these cities and the extent to which each place redefines modernity. Secondly, we will address interactions and intersections among these cities, such as occur through migrations and through trade. Thirdly, we will focus on theories of modernity and pressures to redefine current theories. By limiting attention to four cities, and looking at various elements of metropolitan modernity in comparative contexts, we hope to bring under careful scrutiny theoretical generalizations about modernity, modernization, and modernism.

Our sponsors are the Dickey Center, the Rockefeller Center, the Leslie Center for the Humanities, the Associate Dean of the Humanities, the Associate Dean of the Social Sciences, the Department of Geography, the Rosenthal Fund in History, and the MALS Program.