Deserts Are Not Empty
Colonial and imperial powers have often portrayed arid lands as "empty" spaces ready to be occupied, exploited, extracted, and polluted. Despite the undeniable presence of human and nonhuman lives and forces in desert territories, the "regime of emptiness" has inhabited, and is still inhabiting, many imaginaries. Deserts Are Not Empty challenges this colonial tendency, questions its roots and ramifications, and remaps the representations, theories, histories, and stories of arid lands — which comprise approximately one-third of the Earth's land surface. The volume brings together poems in original languages, conversations with collectives, and essays by scholars and professionals from the fields of architecture, architectural history and theory, curatorial studies, comparative literature, film studies, landscape architecture, and photography. These different approaches and diverse voices draw on a framework of decoloniality to unsettle and unlearn the desert, opening up possibilities to see, think, and imagine it otherwise.
Join Samia Henni, editor of Deserts Are Not Empty, and guest speakers for two virtual panel discussions:
November 7, 12:30–2 p.m. EST
Kassel University, Germany
With Alla Vronskaya, Samia Henni, Solveig Suess, and Paulo Tavares
Respondent: Mi You
November 9, 1–2:30 p.m. EST
Williams College, USA
With Brahim El Guabli, Samia Henni, Jill Jarvis, and Francesco Robles
Respondents: Michele Monserrati and Katarzyna Piepzak