Constructing Coloniality: Statues and Empire

Architectural History

This miniseries of the Architectural History podcast has been produced to mark the SAHGB Conference 2023: 'Constructing Coloniality: British Imperialism and the Built Environment'. The conference takes as its theme the coloniality of architecture and heritage in relation to the British Empire, from the early years of expansionism and the escalation of the slave trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, through the physical and political force wielded in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the development of racial capitalism, to the subsequent and ongoing struggles for independence, freedom and justice.
In this episode we spoke to Sonali Dhanpal about her research into a statue of Queen Victoria erected in Bangalore at the turn of the 20th century. The complex history of the statue speaks to the contested and anxious realities of imperial reification, all too often forgotten in contemporary debates about public statues and imperial legacies.
To support the work of the SAHGB, become a member: ⁠https://www.sahgb.org.uk/join-renew⁠
This podcast is produced by Front Ear Podcasts