Building a Foundation for Action: Anti-Racist Historic Preservation Resources- A talk by Professor Erica Avrami and Historic Preservation PhD Student, Anna Gasha.
Social justice activism has compelled the preservation enterprise to reckon with its role in systemic racism and legacies of exclusion. At the same time, the field is reimagining how its aims and methods can further restorative justice and equity. Building a Foundation for Action: Anti-Racist Historic Preservation Resources was conceived to advance these dual goals of critical reflection and justice-oriented intentions in preservation practice and policy. The resource list addresses anti-Black racism, but explores the marginalization of multiple publics: BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women, people with disabilities, those who are economically disadvantaged, and others. By recognizing the many dimensions of identity, exclusion, and intersectionality, this effort seeks to leverage that knowledge to constructively challenge racism and decenter Whiteness in preservation.
This interactive session will discuss the resource list as a work-in-progress that is intended to engage the field writ large, but especially students and faculty, as essential users and collaborators.
Erica Avrami, PhD, is the James Marston Fitch Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and a research affiliate with the Earth Institute – Center for Sustainable Urban Development. Her research focuses on the intersection of heritage and sustainability policy, and social-spatial justice issues in heritage decision-making and outcomes. She was formerly the Director of Research and Education for World Monuments Fund and a project specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute. Avrami earned her BA in Architecture and MS in Historic Preservation, both at Columbia, and her PhD in planning and public policy at Rutgers University. She was a Trustee and Secretary of US/ICOMOS from 2003 to 2010 and currently serves on the editorial advisory board of the journals Change Over Time and Future Anterior.
Anna Gasha is a PhD student in the Historic Preservation program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Anna graduated with an Sc.B. in Materials Engineering and a B.A. in History of Art and Architecture from Brown University, and holds an M.S. in Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials from University of California, Berkeley. While at Columbia, she has co-curated the “Conversations on Monuments, Preservation, and Protest” mini-series for the GSAPP Historic Preservation podcast, and co-organized the 2021 Fitch Colloquium, “The Art of Preservation.”
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