The Land Lab
A community of learners studying land in its manifold forms and possibilities
Themes explored in The Land Lab will appeal to students in several programs, including the M.S. in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management, the M.S. in Design and Urban Ecologies, the M.A. in International Affairs, and the Ph.D. in Urban and Public Policy. It will also appeal to students who are working on issues of land in various NSSR programs such as Anthropology, Politics, and Sociology. It is our hope to convene students from a wide range of programs around this topic. The following is a list of tentative themes that the lab will explore in the Fall of 2022.
What is land?
Indigeneity and the cultures of land use
From hunting and gathering to pastoralism and agriculture
Ejido and usufruct: Land and reciprocity
Sacred and profane: Land, belief, and communities of worship
Making land from water: Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Mexico City
Enclosure: The origins of property and real estate
Settler colonization as a mode of imperial control
Subdivision: the ordinance grid as epistemic warfare
Land, labor, and capital: Circuits and circulations
Botanical colonialism and the looting of the globe
The radical promise and abysmal defeat of Reconstruction
Engineering landscapes: Technology and ideology
The export platform and neocolonial entanglements
Urban land and property: Agglomerations and accommodations
Parks, gardens, and cemeteries
The mortgage: Amortizing land value
Race, risk, and real estate in the making of cities
Gentrifcation as land grab
Militarism, surveillance, and displacement
Million dollar blocks: Land, community, and the carceral state
Politics and cultures of land reform around the world
Forms of informality: city building at the margins and interstices
Race, capital flight, and cities after abandonment
Reparations as a theory of land
The Brownfield: Toxic legacies, public capital, and private interests
How do we (re)build the commons?
Community Land Trusts, cooperatives, mutual housing
Land and remediation in the Anthropocene