Joseph Godlewski

Joseph Godlewski ’15, Associate Professor of Architecture and Senior Research Associate at the Maxwell African Scholars Union at Syracuse University, has been awarded the prestigious Cecil B. Currey Book Award by the Association for Global South Studies (AGSS) for his recent monograph, The Architecture of the Bight of Biafra: Spatial Entanglements (Routledge, 2024). Established in 1997 and named after its inaugural recipient, historian Cecil B. Currey, the award recognizes the best book by an AGSS member addressing issues in the developing world.

Drawing on archival research and ethnographic fieldwork, The Architecture of the Bight of Biafra develops innovative methods for documenting ephemeral structures—domestic compounds, trading posts, and Ékpè lodges—that left minimal physical traces yet profoundly shaped social life in southeastern Nigeria from the early modern period to the present. Godlewski’s interdisciplinary approach combines architectural documentation with historical anthropology to recover how ordinary people built and inhabited the region’s fragmented riverine landscape, demonstrating African architectural agency within the overlapping contexts of the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism.