BUILDING PLURALISM: CULTURAL POLITICS OF THE AGA KHAN AWARD FOR ARCHITECTURE

Since its inception in 1977, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture has marked an illuminating site at the intersection of religion, politics, and architecture. The Award recognizes spatial practices that are intended to help displaced Muslim communities integrate into secular life. My dissertation addresses two basic questions that highlight ethical paradoxes of the enterprise. First, what does it mean to “serve” through architecture? For example, while projects recognized by the Award “empower emerging Muslim communities” in stigmatized neighborhoods in Europe, they also facilitate assimilation and gentrification. Second, the patron of the Award is the leader of a minority Muslim, group scattered across 25 countries. Why did a religious leader take upon himself the patronage of an architectural foundation that serves communities far beyond his own? Furthermore, the projects acknowledged by the Award do not necessarily reference “Islamic” symbolism or motifs. Should spaces built for Muslims bear cultural-specific references? It is through these questions that I explore the effects of space on identity formation, re-presentation, and the de-racialization of subaltern communities. My dissertation also draws on archival materials, oral histories, and interviews to explore the Award’s role in the cultural politics of Islam in the age of globalization. My work articulates how Prince Aga Khan (b. 1936), a graduate of Harvard and a royal based in France, capitalizes on institutions such as the Award and his billion-dollar Development Network to unite his transnational, multiethnic community. To highlight the significance of institution-building for the identity of the modern Ismailis, my dissertation traces the genealogy of the Aga Khan family from their emergence in the Qajar Dynasty in Persia to their transition to India under British colonial rule. My work explains how a minority group who established the Fatimid Dynasty in Egypt in the 10th century and were renowned as the “Order of Assassins” during the 11th to 13th centuries has come to exemplify one of the most progressive Muslim groups today. Extending my analysis beyond art historical methods, my research sits at the intersection of immigration politics, theories of race and social justice, and critical discourse on global Islam.