I Wanted This Scholarly Story to Come to Life

Abstract On October 19, 2024, Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, an architectural historian at Barnard College, Columbia University, joined in conversation with Omar Berrada, a writer, curator, and translator, on Dadaab Commons (GoDown Arts Centre, 2025), curated and organized by Siddiqi in collaboration with the GoDown Arts Centre in Nairobi. This project, including works by AbdulFatah Adam, Cave Bureau, Deqa Abshir, Elsa MH Mäki, James Muriuki, Peterson Kamwathi, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, and Siddiqi, builds on questions in Siddiqi's book Architecture of Migration: The Dadaab Refugee Camps and Humanitarian Settlement (Duke University Press, 2024). Berrada and Siddiqi discuss the exhibition and works in relation to questions of land, migration, ecologies, solidarities, archives, craft, race, and feminism raised in the book.