Date Thesis Awarded

5-2022

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

Anthropology

Advisor

Andrea Wright & Joseph Jones

Committee Members

Andrea Wright

Joseph Jones

Claire McKinney

Abstract

The practice of spatializing culture, or “examining space through theories of embodiment, discourse translocality, and effect,” localizes the global and separates hegemonic narratives of space from how it is actually utilized by the people who interact with it. Setha Low argues that this perspective is especially useful to the anthropologist committed to challenging the discipline’s historically eurocentric approach to studying culture. She writes that a spatial focus “[draws] on the strengths of studying people in situ, producing rich and nuanced sociospatial understandings.” This project began with an interest in theorists such as Edward Soja, Michel de Certeau, and Henri Lefebvre, among others to whom I was introduced during my undergraduate career in anthropology. These writers have given the ideas of “space” and “place” new meanings and have transformed my awareness of how our surrounding environment influences lived, embodied experience and our culture’s shared perception of time. Putting this anthropological framework into conversation with feminist theories of progress has allowed me to analyze memorialization from a unique perspective, one that centers the visitor and their access to a memorial’s influential capacity. Ultimately, I hope to, as Saidiya Hartman describes, “shake our confidence in commemoration” for the sake of creating more meaningful memorials in the future.

Comments

Accepted for Highest Honors in Anthropology on May 6, 2022.

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