Exploring the meanings of geography

• In Event: 41021 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 8: Geography, Space, and Place

Abstract

This paper explores literature on how Human Geography is understood in white supremacist frameworks of domination on the one hand; and how marginalized people, specifically Black people defy these dominant frameworks by asserting their agency in occupying space. In that sense, I explore two particular themes: Geography in the white spatial imaginary (Lipsitz, 2007) and Geography in the black spatial imaginary. Lipsitz (2007) explains the white spatial imaginary as the desires of pure homogenous spaces enhanced through economic and political ownership. Conversely, black geography scholars describe the black spatial imaginary as the creative strategies which Black people adopt to keep themselves alive within their locations, with the understanding of their conditions in a white supremacist world (Lipsitz, 2007; Hawthorne, 2019; McKittrick, 2006; McKittrick & Woods, 2007).

Author

• Anabella Afra Boateng, New York University