QUEER TIME
on land chronologies, dialectics and positionalities
The Oxford Dictionary defines land as the part of the earth’s surface that is not covered by water, as opposed to the sea or the air. For a businessperson, land is real estate—property defined by borders and ownership. In Hinduism, land is Bhumi (భూమి), personified as the goddess of Earth, bringing fertility to the soil and harvests.
Our speculative and suggestive work on Queer Time began by interrogating the ways in which humans inherit and define land—how biases shape our positionalities, forcing us to take sides. The prevailing understanding of land is structured by binaries: land as property versus land as sacred, land as belonging versus land as contested. Yet, the binary was never meant to be the norm. Movement and migration have existed since the beginning of life on Earth. In the context of humans, however, we drew the borders that now define us.
By superimposing the notions of movement and borders, we recognize that land exists within a system of multiplicities—overlapping histories, layered identities, and conflicting claims. These multiplicities, however, often lead to conflict, delineated by identity and belonging. Addressing these tensions requires an alternative metric for understanding time—one that moves beyond linear chronology.
Queer Time proposes a temporal framework that operates on multiple axes, allowing histories and identities to coexist rather than compete. It challenges the singularity of dominant narratives and instead embraces simultaneity, where multiple truths, memories, and spatial conditions remain in dialogue.
To situate this idea within a physical space, we examined a set of sites of intense contestation. The first case is the Ayodhya dispute in India, which was, legally contested for
Our speculative and suggestive work on Queer Time began by interrogating the ways in which humans inherit and define land—how biases shape our positionalities, forcing us to take sides. The prevailing understanding of land is structured by binaries: land as property versus land as sacred, land as belonging versus land as contested. Yet, the binary was never meant to be the norm. Movement and migration have existed since the beginning of life on Earth. In the context of humans, however, we drew the borders that now define us.
By superimposing the notions of movement and borders, we recognize that land exists within a system of multiplicities—overlapping histories, layered identities, and conflicting claims. These multiplicities, however, often lead to conflict, delineated by identity and belonging. Addressing these tensions requires an alternative metric for understanding time—one that moves beyond linear chronology.
Queer Time proposes a temporal framework that operates on multiple axes, allowing histories and identities to coexist rather than compete. It challenges the singularity of dominant narratives and instead embraces simultaneity, where multiple truths, memories, and spatial conditions remain in dialogue.
To situate this idea within a physical space, we examined a set of sites of intense contestation. The first case is the Ayodhya dispute in India, which was, legally contested for
over 140
years since its first filing in 1885, and centers around a single piece of land considered sacred by both Hindus and Muslims. At the time of the lawsuit, the Babri Masjid, a mosque built in the 16th century during Mughal rule, stood on the site. However, Hindus believe the site to be the birthplace of Lord Ram, arguing that a temple should rightfully exist there instead. The legal and political battles culminated in the demolition of the mosque in 1992 and, decades later, the construction of a Ram temple.
Sacred sites, by their very nature, are not neutral. Architecture holds power—it propagates and enshrines the values embedded within it. In sites of assembly like Ayodhya, the land was forced into a binary choice, one that succeeds through exclusion. While, in this case, the land has already been redefined by the construction of a temple, the larger question remains: how do we rethink contested spaces beyond the logic of victory and loss?
Sites of conflict, whether in India or elsewhere, demand methodologies of spatial thinking that embrace agonism—productive disagreement—rather than erasure. How can we design spaces that hold tension rather than resolve it? How do we embed spaces of agonism within the fabric of urban environments to challenge dominant narratives?
The undoing of binary structures requires an acknowledgment of Queer Time—a framework that refuses the finality of singular truths and instead fosters multiplicity. This is an ongoing project, one that seeks to reimagine conflict and identity through non-binary spatial thinking, not in pursuit of uniformity, but in service of unity.
Sacred sites, by their very nature, are not neutral. Architecture holds power—it propagates and enshrines the values embedded within it. In sites of assembly like Ayodhya, the land was forced into a binary choice, one that succeeds through exclusion. While, in this case, the land has already been redefined by the construction of a temple, the larger question remains: how do we rethink contested spaces beyond the logic of victory and loss?
Sites of conflict, whether in India or elsewhere, demand methodologies of spatial thinking that embrace agonism—productive disagreement—rather than erasure. How can we design spaces that hold tension rather than resolve it? How do we embed spaces of agonism within the fabric of urban environments to challenge dominant narratives?
The undoing of binary structures requires an acknowledgment of Queer Time—a framework that refuses the finality of singular truths and instead fosters multiplicity. This is an ongoing project, one that seeks to reimagine conflict and identity through non-binary spatial thinking, not in pursuit of uniformity, but in service of unity.
Footnotes
[1] Nasra Abdullahi and Miriam Hillawi Abraham, “The Horn of Africa: Fracturing Timelines,” The Funambulist, no. 36 (June 2021), accessed June 22, 2025, thefunambulist.net/magazine/they-have-clocks-we-have-time/the-horn-of-africa-fracturing-timelines.
[2] "Timeline: Key Events in the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir Controversy," Supreme Court Observer, accessed June 14, 2025, https://www.scobserver.in/journal/timeline-key-events-in-the-babri-masjid-ram-mandir-controversy/#:~:text=1885%3A%20Court%20Dispute%20Begins%20%E2%80%93%20Mahant,(DM)%20refuses%20him%20permission.
[3] Partition: Why Was British India Divided 75 Years Ago? 14 Aug. 2022. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-62467438.
[4] Vaishnavi Chandra Kumar, Hadass Rozental, rAADio, season 4, episode 404, “Queer Time,” Columbia GSAPP, July 18, 2024, 17:29, https://soundcloud.com/columbiagsapp/raadio-season-4-404-queer-time.
[5] Mukhopadhyay, Nilanjan. “One Year After Modi’s Ram Temple Consecration, ‘Dispute’ Has Become a Continual Process.” Thewire.In, 22 Jan. 2025, https://thewire.in/communalism/modi-ram-temple-consecration-vengeance-violence-dispute-structure.
[6] Rettberg A (2008) Reparación en Colombia ¿Qué quieren las víctimas? Bogotá: Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).
[7] Halbwachs M (1992) On Collective Memory. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
[8] Arboleda-Ariza, J. C., Piper-Shafir, I., & Prosser Bravo, G. (2020). Reparation policies in Colombia: Memory as a Repertoire. Memory Studies, 16(4), 777-793. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698020982036 (Original work published 2023)
[9] Arboleda-Ariza, Piper-Shafir, & Prosser Bravo, (2020).
[10] Colombia, Acto Legislativo 1 de 2016 (“Legislative Act for Peace”), transitory article 3, Diario Oficial No. 49 927 (Bogotá, July 7,2016).
[11] ‘Scale of memory’ as a phrase refers to the practice of reading memories as cascading in range of influence as opposed to assuming the existence of singular overarching narratives, which is inherently exclusionary in nature.
[12] Bautista, Myriam. “El conflicto entre indígenas y afro-colombianos en el Cauca: sangre de tu sangre.” Razón Pública, 30 May 2011, https://razonpublica.com/el-conflicto-entre-indigenas-y-afro-colombianos-en-el-cauca-sangre-de-tu-sangre/.
[13] Frank Graziano, “San Esteban del Rey, Acoma Pueblo,” Historic Churches of New Mexico Today (New York, 2019), 104.
[14] Vigas are the wooden beams typically used to support roof structures in adobe buildings, commonly in New Mexico.
[15] Audra Bellmore and Jane Sinclair, “‘Displaced’ in Santa Fe: The Committee for the Preservation and Restoration of New Mexico Mission Churches and San Esteban del Rey Church at Acoma Pueblo; A Site for Global Tourism,” in Migrations and Connections: Latin America and Europe in the Modern World, ed. Pamela M. Graham, (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials, 2012), 103.
[16] “Historic Sites,” National Trust for Historic Preservation, accessed June 14, 2025, https://savingplaces.org/collections/historic-sites-collection.
[17] “Things To Do,” Visit El Paso, accessed June 15, 2025, https://visitelpaso.com/places/the-world-s-largest-equestrian-bronze.
[18] It is important to note that in June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd and the protests in defense of Black lives, two additional statues of Oñate were removed from their locations in New Mexico.
[19] Melvin Juanico, “Acoma--Sky City Pueblo New Mexico,” posted February 24, 2014, by Thomas Wilmer YouTube, 0:02:39, https://youtu.be/rkVxVfveNLc?si=WNtX0fW6DcFeNmzr.
[20] Juanico, “Acoma.”
[21] Bellmore and Sinclair, “‘Displaced’ in Santa Fe,” 103.
[22] Markus Miessen “Proximities,” in Agonistic Assemblies: On the Spatial Politics of Horizontality, ed. Markus Miessen, (Sternberg Press, 2024), 24-70.
Photo Rights
[1] Babri Masjid Mosque, Ayodhya, India circa 1860-1880.
Public domain, Getty Photos
By Samuel Bourne[1][2] (1834–1912) - http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/138760/unknown-maker-babri-masjid-faizabad-english-about-1863-1887/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=170133014
[2] Protestors at the demolition site of Babri Masjid, December 1992.
Public domain
By Duggempudi Ravinder Reddy - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154340514
[3] 35-feet tall adobe structure of San Estévan del Rey. Acoma City, New Mexico, 1933.
Public Domain
Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, and Padre Juan Ramirez. San Esteban del Rey Mission, Acoma Pueblo, Cibola County, NM. New Mexico Cibola County Acoma Pueblo, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/nm0067/.
[4] Sky City, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, 1933.
Public Domain
Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, and Padre Juan Ramirez. San Esteban del Rey Mission, Acoma Pueblo, Cibola County, NM. New Mexico Acoma Pueblo Cibola County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/nm0067/
[1] Nasra Abdullahi and Miriam Hillawi Abraham, “The Horn of Africa: Fracturing Timelines,” The Funambulist, no. 36 (June 2021), accessed June 22, 2025, thefunambulist.net/magazine/they-have-clocks-we-have-time/the-horn-of-africa-fracturing-timelines.
[2] "Timeline: Key Events in the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir Controversy," Supreme Court Observer, accessed June 14, 2025, https://www.scobserver.in/journal/timeline-key-events-in-the-babri-masjid-ram-mandir-controversy/#:~:text=1885%3A%20Court%20Dispute%20Begins%20%E2%80%93%20Mahant,(DM)%20refuses%20him%20permission.
[3] Partition: Why Was British India Divided 75 Years Ago? 14 Aug. 2022. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-62467438.
[4] Vaishnavi Chandra Kumar, Hadass Rozental, rAADio, season 4, episode 404, “Queer Time,” Columbia GSAPP, July 18, 2024, 17:29, https://soundcloud.com/columbiagsapp/raadio-season-4-404-queer-time.
[5] Mukhopadhyay, Nilanjan. “One Year After Modi’s Ram Temple Consecration, ‘Dispute’ Has Become a Continual Process.” Thewire.In, 22 Jan. 2025, https://thewire.in/communalism/modi-ram-temple-consecration-vengeance-violence-dispute-structure.
[6] Rettberg A (2008) Reparación en Colombia ¿Qué quieren las víctimas? Bogotá: Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).
[7] Halbwachs M (1992) On Collective Memory. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
[8] Arboleda-Ariza, J. C., Piper-Shafir, I., & Prosser Bravo, G. (2020). Reparation policies in Colombia: Memory as a Repertoire. Memory Studies, 16(4), 777-793. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698020982036 (Original work published 2023)
[9] Arboleda-Ariza, Piper-Shafir, & Prosser Bravo, (2020).
[10] Colombia, Acto Legislativo 1 de 2016 (“Legislative Act for Peace”), transitory article 3, Diario Oficial No. 49 927 (Bogotá, July 7,2016).
[11] ‘Scale of memory’ as a phrase refers to the practice of reading memories as cascading in range of influence as opposed to assuming the existence of singular overarching narratives, which is inherently exclusionary in nature.
[12] Bautista, Myriam. “El conflicto entre indígenas y afro-colombianos en el Cauca: sangre de tu sangre.” Razón Pública, 30 May 2011, https://razonpublica.com/el-conflicto-entre-indigenas-y-afro-colombianos-en-el-cauca-sangre-de-tu-sangre/.
[13] Frank Graziano, “San Esteban del Rey, Acoma Pueblo,” Historic Churches of New Mexico Today (New York, 2019), 104.
[14] Vigas are the wooden beams typically used to support roof structures in adobe buildings, commonly in New Mexico.
[15] Audra Bellmore and Jane Sinclair, “‘Displaced’ in Santa Fe: The Committee for the Preservation and Restoration of New Mexico Mission Churches and San Esteban del Rey Church at Acoma Pueblo; A Site for Global Tourism,” in Migrations and Connections: Latin America and Europe in the Modern World, ed. Pamela M. Graham, (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials, 2012), 103.
[16] “Historic Sites,” National Trust for Historic Preservation, accessed June 14, 2025, https://savingplaces.org/collections/historic-sites-collection.
[17] “Things To Do,” Visit El Paso, accessed June 15, 2025, https://visitelpaso.com/places/the-world-s-largest-equestrian-bronze.
[18] It is important to note that in June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd and the protests in defense of Black lives, two additional statues of Oñate were removed from their locations in New Mexico.
[19] Melvin Juanico, “Acoma--Sky City Pueblo New Mexico,” posted February 24, 2014, by Thomas Wilmer YouTube, 0:02:39, https://youtu.be/rkVxVfveNLc?si=WNtX0fW6DcFeNmzr.
[20] Juanico, “Acoma.”
[21] Bellmore and Sinclair, “‘Displaced’ in Santa Fe,” 103.
[22] Markus Miessen “Proximities,” in Agonistic Assemblies: On the Spatial Politics of Horizontality, ed. Markus Miessen, (Sternberg Press, 2024), 24-70.
Photo Rights
[1] Babri Masjid Mosque, Ayodhya, India circa 1860-1880.
Public domain, Getty Photos
By Samuel Bourne[1][2] (1834–1912) - http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/138760/unknown-maker-babri-masjid-faizabad-english-about-1863-1887/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=170133014
[2] Protestors at the demolition site of Babri Masjid, December 1992.
Public domain
By Duggempudi Ravinder Reddy - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154340514
[3] 35-feet tall adobe structure of San Estévan del Rey. Acoma City, New Mexico, 1933.
Public Domain
Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, and Padre Juan Ramirez. San Esteban del Rey Mission, Acoma Pueblo, Cibola County, NM. New Mexico Cibola County Acoma Pueblo, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/nm0067/.
[4] Sky City, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, 1933.
Public Domain
Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, and Padre Juan Ramirez. San Esteban del Rey Mission, Acoma Pueblo, Cibola County, NM. New Mexico Acoma Pueblo Cibola County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/nm0067/