Lecture delivered by Associate Professor Catherine Fennell for the Detroit School of Urban Studies Lecture Series at the University of Michigan.
Cities in decline can possess an odd array of abundances—building debris, vacant land, “potential.” In this talk, Catherine Fennell (Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University) will discuss her research on the burgeoning “Deconstruction” movement in late industrial urban spaces and consider how places like Detroit, Gary, Youngstown and Akron invite urbanists to think through, theorize, and—in the case of planners and architects—work with the strange and competing abundances offered by these cities. Dr. Fennell’s research focuses broadly on the decline and transformation of industrial cities and how inhabitants manage the physical aftermaths of demolition and decline of houses that have ceased being homes and instead become waste. Her first book, Last Project Standing: Civics and Sympathy in Post-Welfare Chicago, focused on the politics of space, race, and development during the demolition and rebuilding of subsidized housing in Chicago.
