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Lectures in Art History: Stella Nair, UCLA

November 2, 2023 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

MS Ludwig XIII 16, General History of Peru, folio 62, Huayna Capac at Tumibamba, latest date 1616, La Plata, Bolivia, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

“Beyond Stones: A Reconsideration of the Inca Built Environment”

With its impressive buildings and dramatic mountainous settings, Inca architecture has captivated the attention of travelers for centuries. Yet, non-Indigenous audiences have often focused on a limited number of elements, such as stone, and made numerous assumptions about Inca design, such as characterizing it as repetitive and simple. In this talk, Stella Nair will investigate the elements of Inca design and construction and its settings and uses in order to highlight Inca architecture’s complexity and creative expressions. As will become clear, it is by foregrounding Inca (Quechua) categories and early colonial narratives, that the dynamic world of the Inca built environment comes into focus, as do the diverse Indigenous actors who gave it meaning.

Trained as an architect and architectural historian, Stella Nair has conducted fieldwork in Bolivia, Mexico, Peru, and the United States, with ongoing projects in the South Central Andes. Nair’s publications explore a range of subjects and regions such as Tiahuanaco lithic technology, the design of Inca royal estates, and eighteenth-century Andean woven roofs. She has published two books: the monograph, At Home with the Sapa Inca: Architecture, Space, and Legacy at Chinchero (University of Texas, 2015) which examines the sophisticated ways in which the Inca manipulated space and architecture to impose their authority; and (with Jean-Pierre Protzen) The Stones of Tiahuanaco: A Study of Architecture and Construction (Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2013), which explores one of the world’s most artful and sophisticated carving traditions. She is currently working on two forthcoming books: a monograph on Inca Architecture and Gender, and a co-edited volume with Paul Neill on Ecology, Ephemeral Architecture , and Imperialism in South America and the Caribbean. Nair is an Associate Professor at UCLA in the Department of Art History and Core faculty in the Interdepartmental programs of Archaeology and in American Indian Studies. She has received research grants and fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, American Philosophical Association, National Gallery of Art (CASVA), Dumbarton Oaks, Fulbright Institute, Getty Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and John Carter Brown Library.

A weeknight or daytime permit is now required after 5:00 pm on weekdays. There is no permit required from 5:00 pm Friday through 7:30 am Monday. A $1.00 one-night pass is available in selected lots. More information can be found HERE.


CLE credit is available for this event.

Image: MS Ludwig XIII 16, General History of Peru, folio 62, Huayna Capac at Tumibamba, latest date 1616, La Plata, Bolivia, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Details

Date:
November 2, 2023
Time:
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Event Category:

Venue

116 Murphey Hall
UNC at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599 United States
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Organizer

Lyneise Williams
Email
williale@email.unc.edu