Workshop

5-6 August 2026 

 

Concrete Lifeworlds: 

Ethnographic Perspectives on the Politics and Infrastructures of (Un)-building 

 

Program

5 August

• 14:00 Welcome & Introductions
• 14:30 Coffee break
• 15:00 Panel 1: Precast Concrete Post Bases and the Transformation of Iu Mien Houses in the 1970s, Suchon Mallikamarl, Kasetsart University, Bangkok (Chair: Quang Minh Tô, University of Cologne)
• 16:00 Coffee break
• 16:30 Tour: Concrete Monsters? Guided Architectural Tour on Brutalism on Cologne's Campus
• 19:00 Dinner

6 August   

• 09:30 Panel 2: Concrete as a Building Block for Postmigrant Utopia in a former East German City of Halle-Neustadt, Gregory Gan, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (Chair: Hilman Fathoni, University of Cologne)
• 10:30 Coffee break
• 11:00 Panel 3: Concrete Matter(s)! Approaching House Transformations in Rural Laos Ethnographically, Rosalie Stolz, University of Cologne (Chair: Anna Schäfer, University of Cologne)
• 12:00 Lunch break
• 13:00 Wrap up

Click here for more information & panel abstracts.

Venue: 

Room 3.29, Global South Studies Center (GSSC)

Classen-Kappelmann-Straße 24, 50931 Cologne

Registration:

Please register via email to rosalie.stolz(at)uni-koeln(dot)de by 15 July 2026.

Organized by: 

Molly McGrath & Rosalie Stolz, University of Cologne