William J. Glover

Will Glover's research focuses on the social, cultural, intellectual, and material cultural histories of colonial architecture and urbanism in South Asia. By drawing on insights from a diverse array of disciplines (including South Asian history, colonial studies, and critical social theory), he explores both the theoretical and conceptual frameworks through which the Indian city was made available for reconstruction by the colonial state, and the material cultural practices through which those reconstructions were undertaken. In his book Making Lahore Modern (University of Minnesota Press, 2007) he argues that the lay and professional people who proposed and carried out construction projects in Lahore — both Europeans and Indians — came to share a conviction that the material fabric of the city produced effects on human conduct that were “law-like” in their regularity; and that, importantly, these effects could be known, adjusted, and applied in projects aimed at social and moral improvement. He has also written on British domesticity and residential architecture in colonial India, gender relations in South Asian colonial cities, and the articulation of colonial planning discourse with nineteenth-century British materialist philosophy. He is currently conducting research on the development of the architectural profession in colonial India, the genealogy of “public” space in Indian cities, and the spatial politics of Muslim shrines in contemporary South Asia.

E-Mail

wglover@umich.edu

Department Home Page

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/wglover

Urban South Asia Posts by William J. Glover