Historical Geographies of Responsibility: Countering Ethnonationalism and Exclusion

Type: Virtual Paper
Theme: Ethnonationalism and Exclusion Around the World
Sponsor Groups: Historical Geography Specialty Group, Feminist Geographies Specialty Group, Queer and Trans Geographies Specialty Group
Poster #:
Day: 4/7/2021
Start / End Time: 9:35 AM / 10:50 AM (PDT)
Room: Virtual 10
Organizers: Adrian Mulligan
Chairs: Adrian Mulligan

---

Description

Engaging with one of the key themes of the 2021 Annual Meeting, ‘Ethnonationalism and Exclusion around the World’, this session draws together research that seeks to recover and geographically acknowledge both tragic and violent chapters in ethnonationalist histories, and moments of inclusivity and allyship that are also often marginalized and forgotten in ethnonationalist histories. Furthermore, it considers how the geographical recovery of such chapters -through networked coalition building and intersectional place-based activism involving race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class -can challenge narrow nationalist framings of the past. Historical geographers can play a crucial role in such contemporary processes, and arguably have the breadth of knowledge and a responsibility to do so, in light of the scale of contemporary challenges (Till & Kuusisto-Arponen, 2015). Becoming a more responsible historical geographer in this regard however, raises questions concerning how any recovered histories are contextualized, how any intersecting ‘dark histories’ are tackled, how past lives are portrayed, and how compelling narratives might be made broadly visible through community involvement and public geographies (Kobayashi, 2017; McGeachan, 2014, 2018; Schein 2011; Wyckoff 2016). In this session we aim to create a forum to discuss examples of such responsible historical geographies and the role they can play in countering ethnonationalism and exclusion around the world.

Kobayashi, Audrey (2017) Historical Geography in the Service of Social Justice. Distinguished Historical Geographer Lecture, 2017. Historical Geography 45: 2-16.

McGeachan, Cheryl (2014) Historical Geography I: What Remains? Progress in Human Geography, 38(6): 824-837.

McGeachan, Cheryl (2018) Historical Geography II: Traces remain. Progress in Human Geography, 42(1): 134-147.

Schein, Richard H. (2011) Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Historical Geography. Distinguished Historical Geographer Lecture, 2011. Historical Geography 39: 7-28.

Till, Karen E. & Kuusisto-Arponen, Anna-Kaisa (2015) Towards responsible geographies of memory: complexities of place and the ethics of remembering, Erdkunde, 69(4): 291-306.

Wyckoff, William (2016) Producing Public Geographies: Creating a Field Guide to the Western American Landscape. Distinguished Historical Geographer Lecture, 2016. Historical Geography 44: 3-26.

---

Agenda

Type	Details	Minutes	Start Time
Presenter	Adrian Mulligan*, Bucknell University, The Politics of Memory: Recovering Abolitionist Geographies on the island of Ireland.	15	9:35 AM
Presenter	Caitlin Flanagan*, Pennsylvania State University, “Who Am I This Time?”: Negotiation of Refugee Identity During Transit, 1943-1945	15	9:50 AM
Presenter	LuLing Osofsky*, University of California -Santa Cruz, Razed and Erased: The Belated Memorializing of the Rock Springs Massacre	15	10:05 AM
Presenter	JAEYEON LEE*, UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, Towards a transnational geography of historical justice and inclusion: a feminist analysis of the Korean ethno-nationalistic comfort women activism	15	10:20 AM