Patrick Dykstra to Present at Two Conferences in October

Second year Master’s student Patrick Dykstra has been invited to present his research at two symposia next month. On October 2, he will present his research at the North Texas Medieval Graduate Student Symposium. The symposium’s theme is “Interdisciplinary Research in the era of ‘Relevance:’ Graduate Study across the Disciplines and Beyond.” In the category of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Architecture, Patrick’s research paper, Discerning the Spatial Dynamics Encoded within the Built Environment of the Arena Chapel, focuses on an exciting reevaluation of the chapel’s socio-political connotations, civic and religious appropriations, and surreptitious intentionality as opposed to its actual reception through the revealing examination of space within the Arena Chapel’s built environment.

Dykstra’s second presentation will be at The Florida State University’s Interdisciplinary Performance Symposium on October 11. The symposium will focus on contributing to the academic field of Performance Studies through a range of disciplines. Patrick’s paper, The Tacón Theatre; Establishing a New Social Order Through Architecture and The Fine Arts, explores the various economic, political and social aspects that influenced the construction of the Tacón Theatre in Havana, Cuba, and addresses the theatre’s involvement and ideology relative to similar architecture which exerted authoritative dominance of western culture in the city during the nineteenth century. Presenting the multivalent associations attributed to the Tacón Theatre’s developing social and cultural environment, this paper helps to provide a crucial step toward unveiling the impact that architecture, theater, and the performing arts have on a given society and its perceived identity.