C.V.

Student Resources

Welcome!

I teach political theory and women's & gender studies at Augustana College. My current research focuses on the politics of public space: how cities are often made less democratic through urban planning discourse. This is the subject of my book, Building the Body Politic: Power and Urban Space in Washington, D.C.

 

This book explores how urban planning discourse contributes to the undemocratic character of cities through the use of rhetorical strategies that normalize, marginalize, and/or aestheticize city residents.  Using insights from social theory, cultural geography, and urban studies, Building the Body Politic examines how the language that we use to describe our visions of city life ultimately helps to shape not only the built spaces of the city but also the very subjectivity of its inhabitants, creating both a class of citizens and its other. The book accomplishes this by exploring the relationships between spaces, subjects, and power as they have been articulated in the context of planning Washington, D.C. 

 

I am also beginning a new project on the role of amnesia and nostalgia in creating and evaluating urban space.  I've presented two papers from this project ("Homesick: Memory, Place, and Loss in New Orleans" and "Amnesia, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Place Memory") at APSA and WPSA.

In addition to my work on democratic theory and urban planning, I've been exploring some of the most creative forms of political action in collaborations with Jamie Warner of Marshall University.  Our articles together are "Spectacular Resistance: The Billionaires for Bush and the Art of Political Culture Jamming," Polity (2008), and "Rah-Rah Radical: The Radical Cheerleaders' Challenge to the Public Sphere," Politics & Gender (2006). 

Course syllabi and readings are now available on Moodle.

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