Whose voices are heard? Roundtable on Network, Privilege and Class at ETH
Author: Parity Group
Tags: #Parity Talks IX
Blurb: With AAA, Paola de Martin, Raphaela Hettlage (ETH Diversity), and D-ARCH members
ETH Zurich is recognized as the most elite public academic institution in Switzerland. It also sees itself as a very international school and enjoys a high reputation worldwide for its excellence. Studying, researching, and working at ETH is a so-called “privilege”.
But are we truly all equally privileged or what does such privilege entail? Do we use this privilege as responsibly and consciously as we should? What kind of behavior and practice does such privilege enforce and enable? Why does ETH Zurich – and in particular its Department of Architecture – only engage with a small and obscure selection of first world institutions and white countries as partners? Are other schools in many other parts of the world simply “not at our level” or are we blind to the potential and genuine problems that lie outside of first world countries? What is the school doing to connect with them and bring a variety of voices into the school? Who is welcome to study and work at ETH, and who is not? Is class a big elephant in the room that we dare not talk about? Are there barriers such as language, networks and cultural codes that add to the many other glass ceilings? Do we engage with our colonial past not only in a historical but contemporary manner? What kind of institution do we imagine ETH to be and what does reality look like?
All these questions have a clear impact on a crucial question that we want to ask and start discussion with this roundtable: Whose voices are heard at the school?