Taubman College Dean Jonathan Massey will present a lecture at the University of Toronto as part of its Connaught Global Challenge initiative, a $1 million grant program that funds interdisciplinary research and solutions to global issues. Massey’s lecture, “Infrastructure Worth Building,” will headline The Connaught Global Challenge Initiative on Entangled Worlds: Sovereignty, Sanctity and Soil, which is one of four recipients of 2018-2019 grants. It is led by University of Toronto Professors Valentina Napolitano (Department of Anthropology) and Simon Coleman (Centre for the Study of Religion).

Entangled Worlds aims to foster a discussion on forms of inclusion and exclusion connected to sanctity and soil — in the sense of substances, but also land, water, and the commons — as well as histories of colonialism and new populisms, and the (re-/de-) sacralisation of new and old forms of sovereignty and urban spaces. Massey, whose research looks at how architecture mediates power by forming civil society, shaping social relationships, and regulating consumption, will focus his lecture on issues surrounding American infrastructure and progressive counter-proposals. Discussants are University of Toronto Professors Heba Mostafa (History of Art and Architecture) and Mauricio Quirós Pacheco (Daniels School of Architecture). The event will be chaired by Professor Petros Babasikas (Daniels School of Architecture).

The lecture will take place Thursday, February 7, 2019 from 4-6 p.m. For more information and to register for the event, visit anthropology.utoronto.ca/events/entangled-worlds-infrastructure-worth-building.