EDAR Newsletter

nº 101

September 2025

EDAR WELCOMES

New PhD Students

EDAR is delighted to welcome the new PhD students:

• Julien HEIL, who has started his research on the 1st of September 2025, at ALICE
• Clémentine MARTINEZ-PEREZ, who will start her research on the 1st of October 2025, at LHST
• Jules CALAGE, who will start his research on the 15th of October 2025, at LHST,

and wishes success in their studies.

PUBLIC THESIS DEFENSE

Sanja Platisa (PhD student at LASUR)

26 September 2025, 18:30 (CET)

The public defense of the doctoral thesis entitled "Mapping situated multiplicity: urban practices and narratives of former Yugoslavs in selected European cities" will be held in SG Foyer (campus EPFL Ecublens). The thesis is completed under the supervision of Prof. Vincent Kaufmann and Dr. Yves Pedrazzini (LASUR). To attend the public defense, please contact here.

AR-688 FORUM DES TRANSITIONS URBAINES

Towards Bioclimatic Cities

Entitled Towards Bioclimatic Cities, the Forum des transitions urbaines will be held on September 12, 2025 in the Auditorium of Microcity (EPFL campus Neuchâtel). Organised jointly by the Ecoparc Association and the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST), in partnership with the journal TRACÉS, the biennial event will approach this crucial theme for our built environment from different angles. To register for the event, please follow this link. For information on the AR-688 EDAR course taking place within the Forum, please consult with the link.

EDAR COURSES

Fall 2025

EDAR is glad to announce the list of Courses for the Fall semester 2025. For detailed information, please consult with the EDAR Course book through the link.

AR-688 / 12.09.2025 – Vers des villes bioclimatiques ? Forum des Transitions urbaines 2025.

Emmanuel Rey, Martine Laprise

AR-616 / 09-10.10.2025 – Thesis Writing Workshop.

Gretchen Bakke, Lea Sgier

AR-602 / 03-04.11.2025 – Introduction to Research I.

Elena Cogato Lanza, Luca Pattaroni

AR-690 / 18-20.11.2025 – Making the World Discrete. Workshop on Methods.

Alfredo Thiermann, Xavier Nueno

AR-689 / 25-26.11.2025 – Field Work – The Terrain, the Lab, the Archive.

Charlotte Malterre-Barthes

AR-667 / Fall semester – Rythmologies. Sociétés et territoires à l'épreuve.

Vincent Kaufmann

EXTERNAL COURSES

at Swiss universities

EDAR has updated the list of external doctoral courses with information on courses offered by Swiss universities in the Fall semester 2025. To access the course database, please follow the link. To have the courses counted towards the requirements of the EDAR program, please consult with Sandra Botta in all cases. To contribute to the list with inputs on additional courses offered by universities in Switzerland, please use the link.

CALLS



Call for summer school organisation

EPFL and ETH Zürich announce a call for proposals for a joint summer school organisation in 2026. The objective of the summer school is to enhance exchange between the PhD students of EPFL and ETHZ. Hence, a proposal must be handed in by an organisational committee comprised of doctoral candidates of both institutions by October 1, 2025. For detailed requirements and guidelines on the project proposal preparation, please visit the link.

Calls for participation

The International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE) announces its annual international conference entitled Translating Traditions, which will be held in Shanghai on June 26-29, 2026. The conference aims to advance a discourse set against the backdrop of the vibrant metropolis of Shanghai, situated at the intersection of China and the world and lying at the crossroads of Eastern and Western culture since the mid-19th century. Abstracts of 500 words are to be submitted via the link by September 15, 2025. For detailed information on the conference tracks, please visit the link.

King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thammasat University, Silpakorn University, and Chulalongkorn University announce a Media Architecture Biennale (MAB) 2025, which will be held in Bangkok on November 18-23, 2025. MAB25 is the world's premier event on media architecture, urban interaction design, and urban informatics. It brings together architects, artists and designers, leading thinkers on urban design, key industry and government representatives as well as community activists. Together, they explore the design and role of media in the built environment and its implications for urban communities and ecosystems. Full papers of 3000-5000 words are to be submitted via the link by September 15, 2025. For detailed information, please visit the link.

Cornell University's History of Architecture and Urbanism Society (HAUS) announces a PhD Symposium entitled Unearthing the Earth: Architectural Histories of Extractivism, which will be held in Ithaca, New York, on March 26-27, 2026. The symposium invites scholars engaged with the spatial and infrastructural aspects of extractivism from various fields, including environmental humanities, science and technology studies (STS), labour history, political economy, and decolonial and postcolonial studies, to contribute to a global understanding of the connections between extractivism and the management of life. Abstracts of 500 words, along with a short CV and bio, are to be submitted via the link by October 15, 2025. For detailed information, please visit the link.

The European Association for Urban History (EAUH) announces a call for its annual international conference entitled City Networks in Europe and Beyond, which will be held in Barcelona on September 2-5, 2026. City networks have played a strategically important role in both the past and the present. Cities and the connections between them have been just as influential – if not more so – than states in shaping Europe and extending its influence beyond the continent, especially through colonial relationships. Although the history of Europe is often identified with states and nations, it is largely the history of its networked cities. Papers of 3000-6000 words are to be submitted via the link by October 22, 2025. For detailed information, please visit the link.

The Department of Interior Architecture at HEAD – Genève announces an international symposium entitled Addressing Interior Violences, which will be held in Geneva on February 23-24, 2026. The symposium follows Michel Foucault’s reflections by considering interior architecture as a set of biopolitical techniques of control over bodies and subjectivities. It seeks to interrogate the role of interior spaces in perpetuating power structures organized around the modern notion of normalcy. Abstracts of 500 words and a short bio are to be submitted to javier.fernandez-contreras@hesge.ch; paule.perron@hesge.ch; valentina.deluigi@hesge.ch by October 22, 2025. For detailed information, please visit the link.

Sorbonne University's Médiation-s - Sciences des lieux, sciences des liens geography research unit announces an international conference entitled Cartography Trouble. Counter-cartographies and paradigm shifts, which will be held in Paris on September 7-9, 2026. The conference aims to sketch the contours of today's alternative cartographic dynamics and understand what they say about the contemporary challenges to cartography. The theory and practice of cartographies and counter-cartographies will be explored through a number of thematic tracks. The conference will be held in French, German, Spanish, and English. Proposals of 5,000-10,000 characters are to be submitted via the link by November 1, 2025. For detailed information, please visit the link.

Call for papers

Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale, urbaine et paysagère announces the call for papers for its upcoming issue entitled On the Profession of Historian.Transforming practices and horizons. This thematic issue seeks to study the backgrounds and trajectories of architectural historians from the second half of the 20th century up to today, both in France and abroad. The aim is to expand upon numbers of intellectual biographies to gain greater insights into the discipline’s evolution through its many actors and contributing communities. Full papers up to 40,000 characters are to be submitted to craup.secretariat@gmail.com by February 9, 2026. For detailed information, please visit the link.