Mona Domosh of Dartmouth College
Professor of Geography Mona Domosh of Dartmouth College will present Illinois State University’s Distinguished Geographer Lecture. The talk, titled “From the U.S. South to the Global South: Practicing Development at Home,” will be at 5 p.m. Monday, September 26, in the Old Main Room of the Bone Student Center. The event is free and open to the public.
A recent president of the American Association of Geographers, Domosh examines the cultural-historical geographies of American empires, including the ways femininity, masculinity, consumption, and “whiteness” played into the crucial shift from American nation-building to empire-building during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is the co-author of the human geography textbook, The Human Mosaic: A Cultural Approach to Human Geography, and one of three senior editors of the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography.
“Based on archival research in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi, I argue that what we call ‘international development’ needs to be understood as a technique of governance that took shape within the realm of the domestic and through a racialized gaze,” said Domosh.
The talk will focus on the agricultural extension practices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the American South during the early 20th century, examining how these interventions targeted the rural farm home and farm women, especially African-American women.
The Distinguished Geographer Lecture Series is sponsored by the Illinois State University Department of Geography-Geology with support from E. Joan Miller. Those who need special accommodation to fully participate in this event can contact the Department of Geography-Geology at (309) 438-7649.
