How furniture has served as an instrument of modernization while diffusing particular cultural norms

Our houses and offices are filled with furniture. We know their function and how they should be arranged. How did we form ideas about filling our interior spaces with these objects? Do we use furnishing to communicate who we are or how we wish to be seen? Whose cultural aesthetics have come to dominate our interior spaces? In this talk, Dr. Modarres will try to answer these questions and describe how furniture has served as an instrument of modernization, while helping diffuse particular cultural norms.
Biography
Dr. Modarres earned his Ph.D. in geography from the University of Arizona and holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in landscape architecture from the same institution. He has published in the areas of social geography, immigration, urban development, planning, and policy. He has focused a significant portion of his public scholarship on economic development through an equity lens that includes global labor migration within the larger political and economic discourses. Dr. Modarres serves on the advisory board for Palgrave’s book series on Demography and Political and Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa and Springer’s Urban Book series. He also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Urban Affairs, Cities, and Sociologica Urbana e Rurale (Italy). He is one of the two founding editors of the new journal of Race, Ethnicity, and the City. Throughout his academic career, he has built bridges between university and the community, promoting and supporting the mission of urban serving universities.

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The University of Washington Tacoma / Be Boundless

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