A methodology for black geographies
Abstract
This methodology was created to investigate the relationship between Black spatial imaginaries and Black identities to explore the impact of these imaginaries on place-making in Atlanta, Georgia. I utilize a number of frameworks that center Blackness, humanness, and critical race studies in order to collect qualitative data that privileges space alongside the lived experiences of the participants. In this paper, I make a case for the consideration and development of new methodologies that center Blackness within the context of a Black geographic frameworks and study around cultivating empathy and vulnerability, emplacement, and understanding tensions and negotiations between Blackness and sense of place. The centering of Blackness in this methodology is emphasized in order to dismantle the white spatial gaze and white supremacist practices that often occur within research methodologies where the participants are not white.