Join us online or in person for a seminar with Jess Parr, Killion Mokwete, Patricia Davis and Bahare Sanaie-Movahed.
Built Heritage Preservation and New Media in Benin
Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) offer important tools for heritage preservation groups attempting to navigate the challenges colonialism and its legacies imposed upon the built environments of their most historically significant public places. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technologies constitute a specific form of GIS that enable preservationists to capture images of historic structures at specific moments and create intricate three-dimensional images. They are thus instrumental in supporting local institutions charged with preserving historically important sites and doing so in ways that enhance the memory-making potential of more traditional means of preservation, such as architecture and oral history. The African Built Heritage Project, a collaboration between the Ecole du Patrimoine African in Porto-Novo, Benin, and an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the U.S. represents an important case study of the possibilities for LiDAR technologies to heighten the role of media systems in de-colonial heritage preservation projects in Africa.
11am, 2nd April 2025.
Burwood: C2.05.01
Waurn Ponds: IC1.108
Zoom: Click here
Jessica Parr (she/they) is a historian of the Early Modern Atlantic, specializing in race and memory long eighteenth century, as well as in digital humanities, and archival studies. They are the author of Inventing George Whitefield: Race, Revivalism, and the Making of a Religious Icon (U. Press of Mississippi).
H. Killion Mokwete teaches design studios across undergraduate and graduate thesis research. His teaching leverages community-based learning approaches through engaging with local communities both in Boston and internationally where his professional practice and research lies.
Patricia Davis is a critical/cultural studies scholar whose research and teaching lies at the nexus of rhetoric and media studies. She studies public memory, identity, race, gender, and representation.
Bahare Sanaie-Movahed, Senior GIS and Remote Sensing Analyst, Data Services. Bahare has a Master’s in Remote Sensing from Boston University (2014).