Doctoral Dissertation Research: Sweet Auburn: Contesting the Racial Identity of Atlanta's Historically Significant African American Neighborhood

越来越多的学者正在研究美国社会中种族和地方之间的复杂关系。 这项研究的一个重要部分认为，地方可以充满种族意义和意义-一个被称为地方种族化的过程。 现有的研究有效地证明了社会中的广泛力量如何使地方种族化。 这些研究没有充分探讨在这些地方生活和工作的种族化少数群体的作用，导致了一种扭曲和过于简单化的描述。 这个博士论文的研究项目探讨了种族化的居民，工人和社区领袖的地方决策机构与奥本大道，在亚特兰大，格鲁吉亚历史上最重要的非裔美国人社区的详细案例研究。 这个项目认识到，地方可能带有多重和潜在的不相称的种族身份，纪念馆可以有力地将种族铭刻到这些景观中。 该项目通过将档案数据的详细分析与对关键社区利益相关者的开放式访谈联系起来，研究了奥本大道社区种族身份形成和地方形成的复杂性。 它具体考察了非裔美国人在二战后的几十年里塑造奥本大道的身份和意义的多重努力，包括与马丁·路德·金有关的多个纪念场所。在社区 博士生还将研究在亚特兰大的经济和人口动态背景下重建和振兴大道的当代努力。该项目将纠正以前的地理研究的倾向，通过确定多个，有时是冲突的社区利益相关者，（并在历史上寻求）影响奥本大道的种族化身份的建设。 通过认识到非洲裔美国人长期以来一直是重要的地方决策代理人，虽然位于一个不平等的权力结构，这项研究将反对种族无能为力的刻板印象。 本研究借由探讨奥本大道的非裔美国人社区所塑造的种族化的地方认同与政治意识形态的多重性，来对抗单一与同质种族认同的物化神话。 此外，亚特兰大是美国最大、最富有、最有活力的非洲裔美国人的家园，但人们对它的地位几乎一无所知。 奥本大道提供了一个很好的案例，以加深对少数民族社区在大都市活力背景下谈判种族化的地方身份的复杂和多种方式的基本理解。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。

A growing number of scholars are addressing the complex relationship between race and place in United States society. An important strand of this research argues that places can be imbued with racial significance and meaning -- a process known as the racialization of place. Existing research effectively demonstrates how broad forces in society can racialize places. These studies have not fully explored the agency of racialized minorities who live and work in these places, resulting in a skewed and overly simplistic account. This doctoral dissertation research project explores the place-making agency of racialized residents, workers, and community leaders with a detailed case study of Auburn Avenue, the most historically significant African American neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia. This project recognizes that places may carry multiple and potentially incommensurate racialized identities and that memorials can powerfully inscribe race into these landscapes. This project examines the complexity of racial identity formation and place making in the Auburn Avenue community by linking detailed analyses of archival data with open-ended interviews of key community stakeholders. It specifically examines the multiple efforts of African Americans to shape the identity and meaning of Auburn Avenue in the decades following World War II, including multiple memorial sites related to Martin Luther King, Jr. in the community. The doctoral candidate also will examine contemporary efforts to redevelop and revitalize the avenue in the context of Atlanta's economic and demographic dynamics.This project will redress the tendency of previous geographic research to homogenize racialized minorities as powerless victims through the identification of multiple and sometimes conflicting community stakeholders who seek (and have sought historically) to influence the construction of Auburn Avenue's racialized identity. By recognizing that African Americans have long been important place-making agents, though situated in an unequal power structure, this research will counter stereotypes of racial powerlessness. By exploring the multiplicity of racialized place identities and political ideologies shaped by Auburn Avenue's African American community, this research counters reified myths of singular and homogeneous racial identity. Furthermore, Atlanta is home to one of the nation's largest, wealthiest, and most dynamic African American populations, yet almost nothing is known about its place making power. Auburn Avenue provides an excellent case to deepen basic understanding of the complex and multiple ways that minority communities negotiate racialized identities of place in the context of metropolitan dynamism. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.