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位之间的复杂关系。这项研究的一个重要部分认为，地方可以被赋予种族意义--这一过程被称为地方的种族主义。现有的研究有效地证明了社会中广泛的力量可以使地方种族主义。这些研究没有充分探讨在这些地方生活和工作的种族主义少数群体的作用，导致了一种歪曲和过于简单化的说法。这篇博士论文研究项目通过对奥本大道的详细案例研究，探索了种族主义居民、工人和社区领导人的地位创造机构，奥本大道是佐治亚州亚特兰大最具历史意义的非裔美国人社区。该项目认识到，地方可能承载着多种潜在的不相称的种族主义身份，纪念馆可以有力地将种族融入这些景观中。该项目通过将对档案数据的详细分析与对社区主要利益攸关方的开放式访谈联系起来，审查了奥本大道社区中种族认同形成和地位形成的复杂性。它特别考察了非裔美国人在二战后的几十年里为塑造奥本大道的身份和意义所做的多重努力，包括与小马丁·路德·金有关的多个纪念地。在社区里。这位博士生还将在亚特兰大的经济和人口动态的背景下研究当代重建和振兴这条大道的努力。这个项目将纠正以前地理研究的趋势，即通过识别多个有时相互冲突的社区利益相关者，将种族主义少数群体同质化为无力的受害者，这些利益相关者试图(并在历史上一直寻求)影响奥本大道种族主义身份的构建。通过认识到非洲裔美国人长期以来一直是重要的地位缔造者，尽管处于不平等的权力结构中，这项研究将反驳种族无能为力的刻板印象。通过探索奥本大道的非裔美国人社区塑造的种族主义地方身份和政治意识形态的多样性，这项研究反驳了单一和同质种族身份的具体化神话。此外，亚特兰大是美国最大、最富有、最具活力的非裔美国人的家园之一，但人们对它的影响力几乎一无所知。奥本大道提供了一个极好的案例，加深了对少数族裔社区在大都市活力背景下谈判种族主义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.