Theme
Modern heritage—the material artifacts and living practices of the twentieth century—has become precarious: too familiar for historical reverence; it is threatened by its own obsolescence. Shaped by modernity’s contradictory impulses of radical experimentation and mass standardization, these inheritances are philosophically incompatible with preservation frameworks that privilege objective reconstruction. Such frameworks, oriented toward permanence, fail to address modern heritage’s conceptual incompleteness and ongoing material and social transformation.
This symposium argues for a necessary shift: What possibilities emerge when this heritage is treated as a dynamic site for reparative design, community-led stewardship, and critical interpretation? Convening an interdisciplinary group of faculty and advanced graduate students, the symposium advances creative methodologies for reimagining modernity’s fragile inheritances. We ask how these practices might reframe contested pasts, enrich their present utility, and open vital possibilities for their futures.
Program
134 Temple Buell Hall (Plym Auditorium)
10:00 AM
Introduction
Taisuke L. Wakabayashi
Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
10:15 AM
Keynote Lecture
Hippies Please Leave
Hiʻilei Julia Hobart
Native & Indigenous Studies, Yale University
14 Temple Buell Hall (Blicharski Atrium & Exterior Patio)
11:45 AM
Reception / Lunch
Mumford House (in case of rain, Temple Buell Hall Atrium)
1:00 PM
What Is a Campus?: A Historical Walking Tour
Kathryn E. Holliday
Architecture / Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Organized by the Sawyer Seminar Event Series
225 Temple Buell Hall (Second Floor)
2:30 PM
Propositional Modeling for Digital Heritage: Committed Artifacts, Situated Knowledges
Colter Wehmeier
Informatics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign / Science and Technology in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, The Cyprus Institute
3:10 PM
Spaces in Transition: American Moslem Society (AMS) Mosque of Dearborn and the Making of Modern Heritage, 1938–Present
Mania Taher
Industrial Design, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
3:50 PM
Re(e)ding Toxicity
Tinghao Zhou
Media and Film Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
4:30 PM
Matters of Ground-sense: Appalshop and the William R. “Pictureman” Mullins Collection
Sharayah Cochran
Art History, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
5:10 PM
Unrealized Dreams and Uncertain Futures in the “Cockney Riviera”
Pollyanna Rhee
Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
5:50 PM
Closing
For more information
Please visit the symposium website at https://modernheritage.web.illinois.edu/.