General research background and interests
Gabriella has a cross-disciplinary background with a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Conservation (1996) and a Ph.D. in Architecture–Urban Planning and Design (2002). She did a postdoc in Melbourne in 2004 (The School of Architecture, Building and Planning) and she held a position as Assistant Professor at the Department of Conservation, University of Gothenburg, in 2005–2008, before taking a leave from research activities for approximately six years. She recently returned to research (part-time), focusing on the regeneration of urban industrial sites. Her interests convene in revealing and highlighting sociocultural values that are often present in dilapidated and stigmatized industrial areas. In the last couple of years Gabriella has utilized her private interest in SF novels for a deepened understanding of everyday lives and urban sustainable visions connected to the regeneration of industrial sites.
Sessions auxquelles Dr Gabriella Olshammar participe
Mardi 7 Juin, 2016
Sessions auxquelles Dr Gabriella Olshammar assiste
Vendredi 3 Juin, 2016
Welcome addresses and cocktail, followed by the Concordia Signature Event "The Garden of the Grey Nuns". As the opening ceremony and cocktail take place in the former Grey Nuns' Motherhouse, recycled into campus residence and reading rooms by Concordia University, delegates will also have the possibility to discover the video Three Grey Nuns (3 minutes, by Ron Rudin and Phil Lichti. Three Grey Nuns recount their memories of communal life in the Grey Nun’s Motherhouse. Built...
Working with archival documents and the current-day morphology of the Grey Nuns' site, Dr Cynthia Hammond, Dr Shauna Janssen, in collaboration with Dr Jill Didur, will curate a series of installations and performances that speak directly to the rich heritage of a specific urban landscape: the gardens of the Grey Nuns' Motherhouse, now part of the Concordia University downtown campus. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the lost working gardens of the Grey Nuns. As with other such...
Samedi 4 Juin, 2016
What if we changed our views on heritage? And if heritage has already changed? While, on the global scene, states maintain their leading role in the mobilization of social and territorial histories, on the local scale, regions, neighbourhoods and parishes have changed. Citizens and communities too: they latch on to heritage to express an unprecedented range of belongings that no law seems to be able to take measures to contain, often to the discontent of...
In many parts of Europe and North America, but also in Australia, Japan and parts of China, regions of heavy industry, in particular regions of coal and steel industries, have been in decline since the 1960s. In many of these regions, the transition to post-industrial landscapes has provoked discussions surrounding industrial heritage, what to do with it and for which purposes. One of the most ambitious industrial heritage projects was initiated in the Ruhr region of Germany from the 1960s on...
This festive event will offer delegates a taste of one of the iconic dishes of Montreal, the smoked meat sandwich, imported by Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe in the early 20th century. In particular, the tasting will allow a discovery of the products of the renowned international institution Schwartz's, the Hebrew Delicatessen for which Montrealers and tourists alike are willing to wait in long line-ups. During the tasting, “Chez Schwartz,” a documentary produced by Garry B...
Most of what we experience as heritage emerges into conscious recognition through a complex mixture of political and ideological filters, including nationalism. In these processes, through a variety of devices (museums, scholarly research, consumer reproduction, etc.), dualistic classifications articulate a powerful hierarchy of value and significance. In particular, the tangible-intangible pair, given legitimacy by such international bodies as UNESCO, reproduces a selective ordering of cul...
Dimanche 5 Juin, 2016
The notion of heritage is closely linked to processes of change. In the Western context, the definition of heritage as "a contemporary product shaped from history" (Harvey 2010) highlights the extent to which our relationship with the past is being continually re-configured. However, there is a future dimension implied in this relationship that is often neglected; to paraphrase William Morris, the sense in which heritage testifies to the hopes and aspirations of those now passed away. Making ...
Directed by Tom Fassaert and presented by Marc Jacobs. ___ Doel, a Belgian village near the Dutch border, is disappearing quickly and deliberately. Not because of the four old nuclear reactors on its territory, but because the Flemish government decided that the village might block projects for new docks for the Antwerp harbour, plans developed since the 1960s. In the 21st century this process of officially encouraged depopulation is coming to an end: 2500 inhabitants i...
Lundi 6 Juin, 2016
Canal: Walking the Post-Industrial Lachine Canal (COHDS, 2013 - bilingual) is an audio-walk and booklet that takes listeners from the Atwater Market to the Saint Gabriel Lock, exploring the post-industrial transformation of a once heavily industrialized area. The Lachine Canal area has undergone dramatic changes, as mills and factories were closed and then demolished or converted into high-end condominiums. The adjoining working-class neighbourhoods ...
This session seeks to explore the role of urban heritage in mediating and contesting political conflict in the context of divided cities. We take urban heritage in a broad sense to include places left, scarred or transformed by geo-political dispute, national and ethnic division, violence and war. The case studies can include tangible spaces such as elements of border architecture, historic sites, ruins and urban traces of the conflict, and memorials; as well as intangible elements of city, i...
Cities are growingly being faced by social, economic, cultural and environmental challenges imposing health and social risks. Rapid urbanization, population growth, climate change are only some of the major global challenges that a 21st century city needs to respond to. The current challenging global environment has led to the development of new approaches to the concept of "sustainable city" a city that caters for current and future generation. For instance, the idea of smart city (a city th...
To celebrate our film series dedicated to heritage, sponsored by the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland and the United States Chapter of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies, this event will spotlight the iconic Sugar Shack, which is rooted from Quebec to New-England and which is both the place of maple syrup production and of friendly gatherings during the maple syrup season. In a festive atmosphere, delegates will be invited to taste one of the essential of...
Directed by William Shewbridge and Michelle Stefano USA; 35 mins Presented by Michelle Stefano ___ After 125 years of operation, the Sparrows Point Steel Mill (Baltimore, Maryland) finally closed its doors in 2012. The film, “Mill Stories”, examines the importance of the mill from the perspectives of former workers and community members while connecting their story to the larger narrative of industrial boom and bust. The film seeks to amplify the voices of forme...
Directed by Christine Walley and Chris Boebel Presented by Michelle Stefano When the steel mills began closing on Chicago's Southeast Side, residents could feel the American Dream slipping away. Decades later, the loss of the steel industry has left permanent scars. The documentary film, Exit Zero: An Industrial Family Story, is named for the highway exit number for Chicago’s old steel mill neighbourhoods and captures the feeling of a region passed over. In poignant and some...
Mardi 7 Juin, 2016
The 1970s witnessed a flourishing of living experiments in space, place and community sharing broad ambitions to bring about transformed human social and interpersonal conditions, to re-envision relationships between people and the environment and ecology of their habitats, and to reject a growing mainstream vision of people as passive consumers in favour of a role as creative and adventurous agents of their own destinies. While some expressions of these experiments were non-spatial or intend...
Mercredi 8 Juin, 2016
||| A piece of Gré des champs cheese, a bite of bread with cretons, a taste of chomeur pudding, a glass of cider and blueberry juice... these are just a few of the many Quebecois specialities that you can try on this gourmet excursion to Montérégie. This region is not only spectacular, but is also home to numerous culinary artisans that demonstrate the diversity of Quebecois terroir. The programme includes: visits to livestock farms, a cider works, a berry farmer and an artisanal bre...