Last month, I traveled to Taipei with my fellow PhD candidate in Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Lassamon Maitreemit, and our dissertation adviser, Lynne Dearborn. Lassmon and I presented our dissertation projects to international cultural heritage academics and experts at the “Inheriting the City: Advancing Understanding of Urban Heritage” conference. “Inheriting the City” afforded me the opportunity to share my work with some of the best minds in heritage preservation and now my name and ideas are out in community. I got great feedback on my project and have motivation to move forward with my work on a larger scale. Both during sessions and in our free time, Taipei offered great hospitality, so much to see and do, and warm weather!
The conference theme promoted topics related to how cities past and present deal with cultural heritage and their own outstanding history in the face of development, tourism, and ever-changing political, social, and economic paradigms. Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall hosted all speaker events and receptions were held at the National Taiwan Museum and Songshan Creative and Cultural Park. While in Taipei, we also participated in a half-day study trip to the Dadaocheng Historic District of Taipei to see how the city is reusing its history in new ways to honor tradition and promote commerce. The conference was hosted by the University of Birmingham, UK, and National Taiwan University, Taipei, both University of Illinois partner institutions.
-AnnaMarie Bliss, doctoral candidate in Architecture
Want your work featured on the Grad Life Blog? We are looking for "Postcards from the Field" submissions! Whether you are doing field work at home or abroad, attending an exciting conference, or doing captivating research or scholarship here at Illinois, we want to hear from you! Send a single photo and a short description of your work to gradcomm@illinois.edu with the subject line “Postcards from the Field.” If accepted, your image and description will be featured on the Grad Life Blog and on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds. Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask – we’d love to hear from you!
