"Build the Wall": A Critical Posthuman Analysis of Political Chalkings on Higher Education Campuses

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 53
  In Roundtable Session: Space and Place in Qualitative Research

Abstract

During the United States Presidential Election of 2016, political chalkings on university campuses were rampant and displayed pro-Trump messages ranging from mundane to blatantly offensive. Responses to these chalkings focused on simplistic dialogues of freedom of speech, ignoring them as radical sites of visual activism, racial/political difference, and systemic oppression. Assembling photographs, articles, and postings related to the political campus chalkings, we used a nomadic analysis and found that the chalkings complicate issues of race, gender, oppression, and equity. Thus, campus chalkings emerge as complex events that deserve complex analyses. Turning to a posthuman methodology allowed us to complicate our questions, attend to the materiality of the chalkings, and explore affirmative possibilities for higher education moving forward.

Authors

• Kelly Woodall Guyotte, The University of Alabama

• Maureen Alice Flint, The University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa