Postgraduate Workshop: Queering Historical Methodologies in the Built Environment
What are ‘queer methodologies,’ and how can they help us reclaim the underexamined and overlooked? Following their talk, Dr. Arul Paul and Dr. Sonal Mithal join B.Queer for a workshop with postgraduate students and doctoral researchers on how queer historical methodologies can be applied to the study of architecture, cities, and space. The workshop will delve into how queer methodologies can be used to challenge dominant narratives in architectural and urban history.
Public talk: In this talk, Arul Paul and Sonal Mithal will join us online to discuss their recent book, A Queer Reading of Nawabi Architecture and the Colonial Archive: Lucknow Queerscapes (Routledge, 2024, Open Access), which offers a unique postcolonial history of Lucknow (1775–1857). They will introduce the ways that they have been reading colonial archives queerly to reveal hidden sites of resistance to British rule. The public talk will be followed by a postgraduate workshop.
Participants interested in attending the workshop must submit an expression of interest here: https://forms.office.com/e/T1hNPt0bcZ. You will be expected to attend the public talk, read an excerpt from the book, and prepare to share your research by connecting it to the book.
The workshop will be hybrid, with lunch provided for in-person attendees.
This event is organized by B.Queer and welcomes postgraduate students from any discipline and institution interested in queer, postcolonial, or decolonial approaches to the built environment.
For more information on this event, please contact Leah Aaron:leah.aaron.16@ucl.ac.uk or Athina Petsou:
Queering Urbanism
Queering Urbanism is an event series initiated by B.Queer, The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment’s network for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual (LGBTQIA+) students, staff and allies.Organised by Sé Tunnacliffe, Jordana Ramalho, Ben Campkin and Lo Marshall, the series connects queer and trans studies to urban studies and practices of urbanism, foregrounding issues of equity, diversity and inclusion in the built environment.
Speaker
Sonal Mithal sonal.mithal@cept.ac.in Sonal Mithal is an architect, artist, and educator. She is serving as program chair of the MCR (Master of Conservation and Regeneration) program at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India. She is co-founder of research and conservation studio, People for Heritage Concern which offers consultancy for conservation and urban revitalization projects, and art projects for the public sector. Her research and teaching work transects architecture, landscape architecture, queer studies, history, and conservation. She has recently published INCLOOSIVE: Toilet Architecture (CEPT Press 2025), Lucknow Queerscapes (Taylor and Francis, 2024), and Living Together: More-than-human ecologies for architectural thinking (Birkauser 2025) is expected in May 2025.
Arul Paul arulpaul@nitte.edu.in Arul Paul (he/they) is an architect and educator, serving as an Associate Professor at Nitte Institute of Architecture, Mangalore. Their research navigates the intersections of architecture, urbanism, history, and queer studies. Paul holds an M.Archfrom CEPT University and a B.Arch from Anna University. His work includes Queering Nawabi Lucknow, supported by the Graham Foundation, and publications such as Lucknow Unrestrained (Sage) and Queering Academia (Avani). Their exhibition Lucknow Unrestrained was showcased at Srishti (2019), and he co-presented at SAH 2021. Committed to social justice, they advocate for equity across genders and sexualities. Link to book: https://www.routledge.com/A-Queer-Reading-of-Nawabi-Architecture-and-the-Colonial-Archive-Lucknow-Queerscapes/Mithal-Paul/p/book/9781032441290?srsltid=AfmBOopWB_P6I1760EQlLb6lNb0mNL4bQiKLi4xqbLqmPRXmqdaz2bNg
Thisis a hybrid event
