Open Call: AHRA PhD Student Symposium 2024

Invisible Actants seeks to explore the importance of stories which go beneath, beside and between the normative architectural conditions, questioning the traditional methods and research tools used in architectural practice, research, and historiography. It searches for many transient or subordinated groups that make/build together responsively. Hosted at the Architectural Association over two days, the AHRA PhD Student Symposium 2024 will give space to PhD candidates and young researchers to present their work.

Non-dominant actants, invisible actants, or the absent and silenced voices tell the other – often untold – story. These subordinated groups act as a matter of defiance, resistance, and ultimately as their own manifestation of life. The undoing and redoing are instigated through non-orthodox and non-dominant means, while building-with is enacted by being responsive and responsible.

Drawing from what Ursula K. Le Guin describes as a cultural carrier bag – a container as a story without hero – the AHRA PhD Student Symposium 2024, entitled ‘Invisible Actants: undoing, remaking and building-with’, welcomes different containers. It is envisaged as a terrain of such stories to undo the perpetuation of social and political norms and to remake/build together. By gathering and working with these containers, we can inform and reform the intrinsic relationship and dialectical complexity between architecture and society, and the ethicality of making and dwelling.

By recognising how various research methods and practices can enrich our understanding of the ways in which architecture can gain a stance towards urgent issues today, we invite contributions related to, but not limited by, the following the topics of interest:

• Undoing: These are research projects that address issues, methods and practices of undoing in architecture and construction. In other words, these are projects that may focus on the architectural and construction methods, techniques, and means that invisible actants use as part of their effort to reveal their untold stories – oftentimes minor, marginal, resisting and difficult architecture that challenges the social and political norms perpetuated by major architecture.
• Untold stories of producing a space beneath, beside and between known territories: As part of the endeavour to question the traditional historiographical tools, these projects may explore silent and invisible actants, either figures that have remained silent in architectural historiography or collective actions of space-making that are absent from major narratives, often leaving traces within oral stories.
• Remaking/Reshaping: These are research projects that investigate methods and tools that can help with making those invisible actants visible. Recognising the complex relationship between space-making and the concepts of society and community, it is crucial to bring to the front voices that often remain hidden at the various levels of decision-making (such as with structures of governmentality). These projects can also explore how methods and tools can remake and/or reshape the power system that exists in major architecture, whether as a a profession or discourse, by identifying gaps and establishing the relationship of the invisible actants inside that system anew.
• Building-with: These are research projects that explore ways of building-with by researching case studies of participatory design and co-production of space or by investigating methods and tools that enhance participation at different levels.
• Responsiveness: These are research projects that explore how architecture(s) become(s) responsive or responsible when addressing contemporary problems, ranging from environmental or humanitarian crises to unrecognised responsive networks between invisible groups and actants in society.

A primary objective of the Symposium is to connect architectural research with current discourses of decolonisation, EDI (equality, diversity and inclusivity), gender critiques and post-humanist approaches. In addition, the Symposium seeks to map out and expand on the theoretical and critical tools used in architectural practice, research and historiography.

About the Symposium

The symposium will take place across two days at the AA’s historical premises at Bedford Square.

Roundtable Discussions will be held on the first day of the Symposium, scheduled on 9 May 2024. These roundtables will consist of short presentations and conversations among 3-4 speakers who will explore specific topics related to the symposium's theme and focus. We strongly encourage collaborative and team-based contributions. However, individual contributions will also be considered. Each round table discussion is intended to last approximately 60 minutes. Our open call seeks proposals for the roundtables which can be accompanied by a tentative list of speakers. Roundtables should also embrace the engagement of the audience in the discussion. The idea is to have an interactive day where short talks and informal discussions in a workshop format can take place and trigger a collective exploration of the main topics of the event, creating a lively environment for all the participants of the event. The roundtables are seen as an integral part of the Symposium, in parallel with the paper presentations day on the second day of the Symposium.

Paper presentations will be held on the second day of the Symposium, on 10 May 2024. This day will be dedicated to the research of PhD candidates and young researchers exploring the topics of the Symposium. It will give PhD Candidates and young researchers the opportunity to present their work. The selected papers should be no longer than a 20-minute presentation and will be followed by a response and discussion.

Call for Abstracts and Round Table Proposals

Deadline: 8 January 2024 (midnight anywhere in the world)

We invite contributions from young scholars, postgraduate students, and PhD candidates within and beyond architecture's boundaries, including, for instance, fields such as art history, archaeology, cultural studies, gender studies, ethnology, geography, environmental studies and planning disciplines. Contributions from PhD Students and young researchers in related disciplines will be encouraged as well.

Abstracts and Roundtable proposals should be submitted by 8 January 2024. Participants must send their Abstract or Roundtable Proposals to InvisibleActants@aaschool.ac.uk along with the applicants’ contact information (full name, affiliation, e-mail address) and a short biographical note (max. 150 words), all included in one pdf file. For Roundtable Proposals, the submitted file name should follow this format: RT _Last Name.pdf. For paper presentations, the submitted file name should be PP_Last Name.pdf. Please note that only one submission to either paper or roundtable proposal is allowed.

• Paper Proposal: Please submit an abstract (350 words), the title of your proposal, contact information for all authors (full name, affiliation, e-mail address), and a short biographical note (max. 150 words). The authors of the selected abstracts will present their work-in-progress on the second day of the, which is scheduled for May 10, 2024.
• Roundtable Proposal: Please submit a proposal (350 words) for a roundtable exploring the topics of the symposium. The proposal should briefly describe the scope and the format of the roundtable and, if possible, include a tentative list of participants. Each roundtable will consist of 3-4 participants and will run for up to 60 minutes. Accepted proposals will continue to be developed in collaboration with the symposium organisers with regard to possible formats, potential guest speakers/participants, and forms of outreach and participation (prior to, during or post-event).

Key Dates

15 November 2023: Call for Abstracts & Round Table proposals

8 January 2024: Abstracts & Round Table proposals deadline (deadline extended from 22 December 2023)

30 January 2024: Notification of acceptance

22 March 2024: Draft paper submission

9 & 10 May 2024: AHRA PhD Student Symposium 2024

Funding

Participation in the Symposium is free of charge. The AA has limited funding to subsidise travel expenses for participants to attend the Symposium. If participating PhD Candidates and young researchers can seek financial support from their institutions or other sources to help cover their travel costs that will enable us to allocate funding to participants who are unable to avail of institutional or alternative funding.

Please get in touch with any questions about funding using the email below.

Contact email: InvisibleActants@aaschool.ac.uk