What Is a Slum? Welcome to #31, Buenos Aires

Date: 

Thursday, September 28, 2017, 4:30pm to 6:30pm

Location: 

Plimpton Room, Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street

Speaker: Diego Fernandez, Secretary for Social and Urban Integration, Buenos Aires

Moderator: Doris Sommer, Ira Jewell Williams Jr., Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and African and African American Studies, Harvard University; Director, Cultural Agents Initiative

DFernandez

Diego Fernández oversees one of the most ambitious and visionary projects in the history of Buenos Aires - integrating the "shantytown" of Villa 31 into the fabric of Argentina's capital by expanding educational infrastructure and bringing running water, a sewage system, and electricity to its 40,000 residents. Previously, Fernández was the Chief of Staff of the Buenos Aires Ministry of Education. In 2009 he also co-created G25, a non-profit organization that seeks to bridge the public and private sectors and foster public engagement. This seminar will explore the aspirations of the Villa 31 project and consider the role of creative and architectural interventions as part of transformative urbanization.

This event is part of the Cultural and Humanitarian Agents Seminar Series