EGMT 1530: You Are Here

Where am I? This is a question we often pose only when we’re lost, or need directions. The answer we are looking for is usually quite straightforward, and thanks to our smartphones, easy to come by. Yet there are other ways to pose this question that lead to more complex answers, ones that hit much closer to home. How has this place – my home, my city, my country – shaped the person I have become, and how does it continue to define my possibilities? Where do the lives of others play out, and what does that mean for the way we treat each other? It turns out that life has an irreducibly spatial dimension and that dimension has profound ethical dimensions. We learn who we are and who we can be from spaces that are gendered, racialized, and nationalized in a variety of ways, not only when we are young, but an on ongoing basis, yet we do not often think about this aspect of life. In this class, we will learn to think about this“hidden dimension” of life, its spatial dimension, and how it shapes, or tries to shape, who we are, who we can be, and how we relate to our fellow human beings.