18.02.2025
93 MIN
English

Son[i]a #421
Mabel O. WIlson

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Son[i]a #421

Memorial to Enslaved Laborers who built and worked at the University of Virginia.

“I just tell people I’m ‘undisciplined’,” says Mabel O. Wilson (Atlanta, 1963), finding that disciplines fail to fully encompass her practice, which spans diverse areas and ways of working. She is George Rupp Professor of Architecture, Design, Planning and Preservation, as well as a Professor in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. As a curator and writer, Mabel O. Wilson’s work is anchored in core values of social justice, historical consciousness, and solidarity. Her research contextualizes architecture and planning within a broader, more collective framework of shared histories, hidden or erased racial narratives, and the systemic injustice(s) shaping current social and political realities.

In this podcast, we start by asking Mabel O. Wilson to talk about her personal, educational, and professional development, in response to a lack or silencing of critical thought. We then discuss ideas of land, property, and possession, and also—based on the context of her recent trip to the West Bank—colonial encounters, spatial aspects of enclosures, and degrees of containment. Mabel reminds younger generations of the importance of using architecture not just as a means to build and design, but also to gather, observe, and build relations, to understand history from a different perspective, and to survive within the current socio-political climate, without giving in to despair.

CONVERSATION: ANNA RAMOS. SCRIPT AND SOUND PRODUCTION: PANTEA. SOUNDS: RWM SOUND LIBRARY. VOICE OVER: ROC JIMÉNEZ DE CISNEROS.

Image: Memorial to Enslaved Laborers who built and worked at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Source: Wikipedia.

ATTRIBUTION/NON-COMMERCIAL/SHARE-ALIKE 4.0 INTERNATIONAL (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Son[i]a architecture colonialism Creative Commons Mabel O. WIlson Palestine slavery social justice writing

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Son[i]a #421 Mabel O. WIlson
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