Beyond Colonial Narratives: Methods for Studying Colonial Built Environments in the Global South

The Heritage Institute at the University of Liverpool are pleased to announce a PGR Symposium on Colonial and Postcolonial Architectural History, to take place at the University of Liverpool on Wednesday, 9 December 2026. It is an excellent opportunity for postgraduate and early career researchers to present papers and receive critical feedback from peers and experts in the field.

Symposium Theme
Recent scholarship on colonial architecture and planning in the Global South has increasingly examined the politics of colonial power, imperial narratives, and their enduring legacies in the built environment. Such studies have moved beyond simplistic centre-periphery models to explore how local actors engaged with, contested, appropriated, and redefined colonial projects in domestic, infrastructural, and urban contexts. Methodologically, such works have drawn on approaches ranging from reading against the grain of colonial archives to examining non-official records and period literature that better represent the experiences of colonial societies. Scholars have also turned to alternative sources like oral histories, social practices, visual and material culture, and media to recover the voices and experiences of colonial subjects that are often absent from official archives.

This symposium aims to further explore the diverse methodologies available for studying colonial-built environments beyond colonial narratives and perspectives. It seeks to expand the existing historiography by focusing on contributors who remain marginal or obscured within conventional architectural and planning histories. These include, but are not limited to, local professionals, artisans, labourers/workers and inhabitants. More broadly, the symposium invites reflections on how approaches from architecture, urban planning, history, social sciences, and the humanities can deepen our understanding of the relationships between colonial administrations and local societies.

We invite paper proposals from postgraduate students working on Colonial and Postcolonial Architectural History, broadly defined. Of particular interest are papers that employ primary sources and non-traditional methodologies. We particularly welcome contributions that:

1. Focus on local professionals, artisans, labourers/workers, inhabitants and other contributors who remain marginal or obscured within conventional architectural and planning histories.
2. Reflect on how methodological approaches from architecture, urban planning, history, social sciences, and the humanities can deepen our understanding of the relationships between colonial administrations and local societies.
3. Reveal processes of negotiation, adaptation, resistance, and collaboration among colonial/local authorities, building professionals, labourers/artisans, and everyday users of built environments.
4. Apply archival records produced by colonial subjects and non-state actors, as well as ethnography, oral history, participatory research, and critical analyses of popular culture, media, and material practices.

We encourage potential participants to interpret these themes broadly. Presentations should be prepared to last 10 minutes. We especially welcome submissions from speakers with limited conference experience, as well as work in progress with emerging findings, questions, or methodological challenges.

Prospective participants should submit a 250-word abstract to heritage@liverpool.ac.uk by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.

For further information, please contact heritage@liverpool.ac.uk.