Homecoming after Death: An Islamic Cemetery in Austria

Bernardo Bader: Architect and Principal of the bernardo bader architekten
Eva Grabherr: Director, Center for Immigration and Integration
Azra Akšamija: Class of 1922 Career Development Professor and Assistant Professor, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
Nasser Rabbat: Aga Khan Professor and Director, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT

Can an Islamic cemetery be more than a burial ground for Muslims in the West?  This multidisciplinary panel will discuss the many ways in which Islamic funerary architecture can contribute to nurturing pluralism in places where Muslims are a minority. Focused on the Islamic cemetery Altach in Austria, winner of the 2013 Aga Khan Award, the panel brings together four distinguished speakers who will elaborate on how a construction of a purposely Islamic cemetery may give shape to the process of cultural pluralization and the establishing of Islamic community in Europe. Funerary architecture, more than any other form of religious architecture, ties the collective memory of a group to a specific territory on an emotional and cultural level.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) and the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Art (AKPIA).