Collection in Conversation: Esmond Lee and Ranu Basu

Esmond Lee and Ranu Basu will discuss their work in the intersections of art, geography, and architecture. As longtime Scarborough residents, Lee and Basu will reflect on how living in the urban periphery informs their art, scholarship, and activism—both locally and beyond. Why do we draw and write, and for whom?

This talk is presented as part of the ongoing series Collection in Conversation, in which artists with works in the Doris McCarthy Gallery Collection participate in discussions about their work, practice, and approach to artmaking, with other contemporary artists, writers, activists, and professionals.

Esmond Lee’s work, Baitul Jannah Islamic Center (2021), Jame Abu Bakr Siddique (2019), Masjid Bilal (2019), and Thirupathi Venkatachalapathi Temple (2019) was acquired by the Doris McCarthy Gallery in 2023.

This program is free and will take place in the Student Lounge at the University of Toronto Scarborough Library. Space is limited, registration is required. If you have accommodation needs, please let us know through the registration form or contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca. This is a seated program.

Esmond Lee is an artist, scholar, and architect based in Scarborough, Toronto. He holds a Master of Architecture from University of Toronto and has practised as an architect for over a decade before returning to academia to pursue a Doctorate in Critical Geography from York University. Drawing from these diverse professional, academic, and personal backgrounds, Lee examines themes that include migration, identity, belonging, and nuanced cultural and political borders in the built environment.

Ranu Basu is Professor of Geography at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC), York University, and research faculty at the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS). Her research and teaching interests relate to the geographies of marginality, diversity and social justice in cities; power, space and activism; anti-imperialism and post-colonial geographies; geopolitics of forced migration and subaltern cosmopolitanism; critical geographies of education; and spatial methodologies.