The Charles Gordon Lecture on Society and Design: The Violence of (Law, Planning, Architecture)
Monday, March 17th, 2025 at 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
- In-person event
- The Pit, Architecture Building, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6
2024-2025 Forum Lecture Series
Speaker: Balakrishnan Rajagopal, United Nations (Geneva, Switzerland) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Cambridge, MA, USA)
Free and open to the public
Presented by the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism in collaboration with Carleton University’s School of Industrial Design and Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Balakrishnan Rajagopal has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing since 2020. He is also an associate professor of Law and Development in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
A lawyer by training, he is an expert on many areas of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, the UN system, and the human rights challenges posed by development activities.
Dr. Rajagopal is the founder of the Displacement Research and Action Network at MIT, which leads research and engagement with communities, NGOs, and local and national authorities. He has conducted more than 20 years of research on social movements and human rights advocacy around the world, focusing on land and property rights, evictions and displacement.
His education includes a law degree from University of Madras, India, a master’s degree in law from the American University as well as an interdisciplinary doctorate in law from Harvard Law School.
Rajagopal served as a human rights advisor to the World Commission on Dams and has advised numerous governments and UN agencies on human rights issues. During the 1990s he worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia where he was responsible for human rights monitoring, investigation, education and advocacy, and provided support to national authorities in law drafting.
In addition, he has held visiting professorships and fellowships at institutions around the world, published numerous scholarly articles and book chapters, and is the author or editor of four books including International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance (Cambridge University Press, 2003.)
The Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism gratefully acknowledges the support of the Forum Lecture Founding Sponsors:
- Arcadis | IBI Group
- Charlesfort Developments
- GRC Architects | A Provencher Roy Company
- Hobin Architecture
- Merkley Supply
- Trinity Group