Join us for our first lecture in the Geography Speaker Series on Friday!
Dr. LaToya Eaves, Middle Tennessee State University
December 6, 4PM in the Ubuntu/202 of the Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center.
Presentation topic: Drapetomania: Tracing the Liberatory Practices of Black Placemaking
Black bodies are core spatial actors in the construction of place. Black geographies as crucial sites of knowledge production require attention to both the embodied experiences and material realities. As such, categorical frameworks for identifying and studying Black subjects do not necessarily take into account multivariate space-making practices, varied geographic locations (inter- and intra-nationally), interactions with the natural environment, and historical spatial transformations. In fact, categorical frameworks have dismissed the legibilities and human agency of Black subjects, as in the case of drapetomania, one of many forms of scientific racism that attempted to diagnose the desire for Black freedom as a form of madness. Rather than being conceived of as madness, the desire for Black freedom and liberation signals the reimagination and redevelopment of the specificities that are rendered ungeographic. Therefore, this paper will interrogate the complexities of Black space, rupturing the seduction of containment. Using a case study approach, the paper will examine embodiments, memory and spiritual geographies that includes reproductive justice, archiving and restorations. Thus, I provide diverse narratives of social justice commitments that has led to the development of liberatory praxis across the U.S. Southeast In doing so, I highlight the ways in which Black gendered and sexual communities have maintained their right to analyze their positions and places and have renovated and reimagined ways to spatially articulate Black lives and experiences.