RabachK VtP Collaboration Biography.

Inspired by feminist geographer Doreen Massey’s work on space/place, this year’s Anthro in Tranist (Ait) conference is titled “Stories-so-far: Spatial Knowledges and Imaginaries.” As a member of the AiT committee, I’ve been submerged in conversations around space and place for the last 8 months, especially conversations around much of Massey’s work. For her, space/place (these terms collapse together in much of Massey’s later work) is alive, always in multiple, and never has a clear beginning or an end: “Space is not stagnant, but rather alive and occupied by a million stories--ones that have come, are, and yet to be” (Great interview with Massey). I was introduced to this understanding of space at the same time I took my first course in poststructuralism and began to see the possibilities this theorization of space has for a future yet theorized ... for an otherwise. To me, space seems to be inextricable from imagination which, of course, can be tied to the political.   In our conversations for AiT, we’ve been thinking about the following topics: spatial imaginaries, affective spaces, space and memory, contested spaces, spaces between, haunted spaces, scaled spaces, trace and place, and embodied spaces. Ultimately, we’ve thought about the ways people, through their lived experiences and connections, render space/place meaningful. I’d very much like to continue and expand upon these conversations with the Visualizing Toxic Places cohort and project. In addition to conversations around space/place, I’m very interested in the visualization aspect of this project, especially the various mediums we can relay ethnography beyond academic audiences. I hope to think through some of the following questions: What does it mean/what does it look like to tell or share or create a spatial story? How do you visualize something that is always in flux? What are the implications of that visualization?