A People's Geography of American Empire

A People's Geography of American Empire will look at U.S. expansion, from the colonization of Native America and overseas imperial conquests, to present-day resource wars. It will focus on the place-making processes inherent in each stage of expansion, and on the imprints they have left on the human and physical landscape. It will examine imperial places that have been shaped by each era of expansion, and in turn have shaped each era.

We will examine the continuous historical arc of expansion, from the Indian frontier wars to colonialism in the Pacific and Caribbean, to occupations in Middle East “tribal regions.” This expansion comes full circle as immigrants arrive from formerly colonized lands, and wars at home are waged against occupied communities. In addition to the origins and rationales underlying each stage of expansion, we will explore how and to what extent the world's landscape reflects and helps to (re)produce imperial power.

The program will aim to interconnect global and local scales, foreign and domestic policies, and past histories and present-day legacies. It will examine the lasting imprints of imperial control on real local places, in particular the network of U.S. military bases around the world, including Washington military installations such as Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Naval Base Kitsap, and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

As their fall-quarter project, students will focus on a single local-scale case study, writing separate essays on its past history and present-day landscape, and a resident interview (of activists, refugees, or veterans). Students will also turn in a biweekly synthesis paper on their readings and other learning. A fall-quarter overnight field trip will introduce students to military installations and locations of Indigenous-settler interactions. A winter-quarter research project will create a public-facing educational website on contemporary examples of land acquisition, place-making, environmental impacts, and dissent.

While some of the histories of conflict and suffering may be difficult to learn, frontline communities want their stories to be heard. Imperial places also offer stories of cooperation and resilience, healing, and hope. The program will make a geographical contribution to the study of American Empire by examining the making and remaking of imperial places, and using place-based approaches to examine hierarchies of race, nationality, class, and gender.