Doctoral Dissertation Research: Land Ownership, Cultural Identity, and the Legal Displacement of Family Commons in the Southeastern United States.

这篇博士论文项目研究了与继承人的财产所有权和文化依恋继承人的土地在美国东南部的Gullah-Geechee人之间的法律的脆弱性。 使用整合的方法从法律的地理，关键的财产研究，和政治生态，并使用民族志和档案的方法相结合，这个项目回答了三个主要的研究问题：土地所有者如何定义所有权和谈判土地使用继承人的财产？ 这些做法与所有权和土地使用权的法律的和司法定义相比如何？ 继承人的所有者如何解决土地所有权的冲突？ 这些问题的答案很重要，因为它们与土地私有化、圈地和自然商品化的全球进程有关。 关于这些问题的大部分现有研究来自对全球南方的研究，因此研究美国等地的共同拥有的家庭土地是有价值的，因为法律和先进资本主义的力量被认为在很大程度上消除了替代财产制度。 此外，这项研究说明了美国财产法如何创造令人惊讶的品种和程度的圈地和公地通过定义权利束，可以分离和商品化的部分或全部。 最后，该项目将通过人与人之间的社会关系而不是人与土地之间的社会关系来界定权利，从而为关于财产法在多大程度上变得无位置的辩论提供信息。 通过结合关键的财产研究和法律的地理与政治生态，该项目带来了地方回到财产的重要性，以物质生计和文化特性的土地连接的理解。这项工作的结果是重要的理解和打击流离失所和失去继承人的土地所有权以外的网站在美国东南部。 继承人所有权的未来将取决于土地所有者如何理解、对抗和利用各种各样的法律的、经济和环境过程，这些过程决定了土地的价值和所有权。 这项研究的研究结果将与试图为继承人的财产冲突找到公平和公正解决办法的社区和组织分享，并通过学术会议和出版物传播。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该项目将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个独立的研究生涯。

This doctoral dissertation project examines the legal vulnerability associated with heirs' property ownership and the cultural attachment to heirs' land among Gullah-Geechee people in the Southeastern United States. Using an integration of approaches from legal geography, critical property studies, and political ecology, and using a blend of ethnographic and archival methods, this project answers three primary research questions: How do landowners define ownership rights and negotiate land use on heirs' property? How do these practices compare to legal and judicial definitions of ownership and land use rights? How do heirs' owners resolve conflicts over landownership? The answers to these questions are important because they are relevant to the global processes of land privatization, enclosure, and the commodification of nature. Much of the existing research on these issues comes from research on the Global South, therefore it is valuable to study commonly owned family land in a place such as the U.S. where the power of law and advanced capitalism are thought to have largely erased alternative property regimes. Furthermore, this research illustrates how American property law creates surprising varieties and degrees of enclosures and commons by defining rights as bundles, which can be separated and commodified in part or whole. Finally, this project will inform debates about the extent to which property law has become placeless, by defining rights through social relationships between people instead of between humans and the land. By combining critical property studies and legal geography with political ecology, this project brings place back into an understanding of the importance property to material livelihoods and the connection of cultural identity to land. The results of this work are important for an understanding of and combating the displacement and loss of heirs' landownership beyond sites in the Southeastern United States. The future of heirs' ownership will be shaped by how landowners understand, combat, and harness a variety of legal, economic, and environmental processes that determine how land is valued and claimed. The research findings of this study will be shared with communities and organizations that are attempting to find equitable and just solutions to heirs' property conflicts, as well as disseminated via academic conferences and publications. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.