Geography and Sustainability

topography background

News

Human Geography

Dr. Mikhail Samarin with his full committee members

Mikhail Samarin defended his dissertation

Mikhail Samarin defended his dissertation

Congratulations to Dr. Mikhail Samarin who successfully defended his dissertation titled “Analyzing Rent Burden from the Geographical Perspective: Determinants and Their Variation in the United States” on 21st June 2023. His committee members comprise Dr. Nicholas Nagle, Dr. Solange Muñoz, Dr. Ronald Foresta, Dr. Avigail Sachs (College of Architecture & Design), and Dr. Madhuri Sharma (Chair of the committee). Dr. Samarin completed his Ph.D. in a record time of four years and during this time at the UTK, he has published seven manuscripts in highly ranked journals such as Growth & Change, GeoJournal, Geographical Review, International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research, and International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research, and his eight manuscript is currently under-review. He hopes to have a very productive academic career in the USA. Our best wishes to him!!

Dr. Mikhal Samarin
Dr. Mikhal Samarin
Dr. Mikhail Samarin with his advisor Dr. Madhuri Sharma
Dr. Mikhail Samarin with his advisor Dr. Madhuri Sharma
Dr. Mikhal Samarin with his committee members from Geography & Sustainability
Dr. Mikhal Samarin with his committee members from Geography & Sustainability
Dr. Mikhail Samarin with his full committee members
Dr. Mikhail Samarin with his full committee members
Graceful introduction by Prof. Archana Roy, Dept. of Migration & Urban Studies, IIPS, Mumbai

Dr. Madhuri Sharma’s mapping of UTK’s Geography & Sustainability at a global platform

Dr. Madhuri Sharma’s mapping of UTK’s Geography & Sustainability at a global platform

I was honored to be invited by several highly prestigious institutes in India during my Spring 2023 sabbatical semester. These included the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)-Mumbai, the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) at Bengaluru, the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (C-STEP), Bengaluru, School of Planning and Architecture-Bhopal, and University of Delhi, among others. I was proud and happy to represent our Department of Geography & Sustainability and disseminate knowledge, share and learn from the academic audience in India through these research presentations and workshops. Some of the most interesting events and photos are shown below.

Event 1: Research presentation at the seminar co-organized and co-hosted by the IIPS and ISEC, at Bengaluru, India. The topic was: “Domestic Work, Livelihoods and COVID-19: An Analysis of 38 Domestic Workers in Titwala, Mumbai.” I also served as a Discussant for numerous sessions organized by the newly created South Asia Centre for Labour Mobility and Migrants (SALAM)-IIPS at this seminar.

Flyer for Domestic Work, Livelihoods, and COVID-19

Few photos from this event where Dr. Sharma was honored to serve as a discussant for several sessions organized at this seminar, jointly co-organized by IIPS and ISEC at Bengaluru:

Receiving the memento from IIPS for serving as a Discussant on the sessions by the South Asia Centre for Labour Mobility and Migrants (SALAM) project (ISEC-IIPS jointly hosted Seminar, February 23-25, 2023)
Receiving the memento from IIPS for serving as a Discussant on the sessions by the South Asia Centre for Labour Mobility and Migrants (SALAM) project (ISEC-IIPS jointly hosted Seminar, February 23-25, 2023)
Faculty and students from the South Asia Centre for Labour Mobility and Migrants (SALAM) project at the ISEC-IIPS jointly hosted Seminar, February 23-25, 2023
Faculty and students from the South Asia Centre for Labour Mobility and Migrants (SALAM) project at the ISEC-IIPS jointly hosted Seminar, February 23-25, 2023

Event 2: School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India: Honored to be invited by the School of Planning & Architecture, Bhopal, to demonstrate application of quantitative skills in social science research. I created a workshop-styled presentation for the MSs and B.Sc. students of SPA-Bhopal. This lecture was followed by an interactive SPSS demonstration for all participants. Proud of being a Vol abroad here in India.  

Gendered Income and Educational Disparity Flyer

Event 3: Public Lecture at the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai: Honored to be invited to deliver a public lecture at the International Institute for Population Sciences (Mumbai) on 3rd April 2023. The topic was: Urbanization and Housing: An Inter- and Intra-district Analysis of Housing Shortage, Livability and Quality of Life in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, 2001–2011–2020. Few pics from this public event are below:

Graceful introduction by Prof. Archana Roy, Dept. of Migration & Urban Studies, IIPS, Mumbai
Graceful introduction by Prof. Archana Roy, Dept. of Migration & Urban Studies, IIPS, Mumbai
Dr. Sharma delivering the public lecture at IIPS, Mumbai, 3rd April 2023
Dr. Sharma delivering the public lecture at IIPS, Mumbai, 3rd April 2023
Questions & Answers session after the public lecture on 3rd April 2023 at IIPS, Mumbai.
Questions & Answers session after the public lecture on 3rd April 2023 at IIPS, Mumbai.
Faculty and Students of the Department of Migration and Urban Studies and SALAM, IIPS, Mumbai.
Faculty and Students of the Department of Migration and Urban Studies and SALAM, IIPS, Mumbai.

Event 4: Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (C-STEP), Bengaluru, India, 14 April 2023: I was very happy to deliver an invited research lecture at the C-STEP, Bengaluru. My topic was “Urbanization and Housing: Livability, Sustainability and Quality of Life in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, 2001–2011–2020.” This presentation was heard by a global audience of C-STEP from India and its branches in other countries of the world. This was a truly interactive long session wherein several new ideas emerged during the Q&A session.

A flyer for Urbanization and Housing

Event 4: An invited seminar for undergrads/grads at Univ. of Delhi. These students wanted to learn about my work on USA. So I presented about gender economic disparity and commonalities at global scale!!

A flyer for Multiple Dimensions of Gender Disparity

A flyer for Dimensions of Gender Disparity
Questions & Answers session after the conclusion of Madhuri Sharma's talk
Questions & Answers session after the conclusion of my talk
A Syllabus for the Present Predicament: A photo of the introductory text to the Syllabus

A Syllabus for the Present Predicament

A Syllabus for the Present Predicament

Adam Bledsoe¹, Jasmine Butler², LaToya Eaves³, Alex A. Moulton³

¹University of Minnesota; ²Writer and Cultural Worker; ³University of Tennessee, Knoxville 

A SYLLABUS FOR THE  PRESENT PREDICAMENT
February 13, 2023 Edition

This reading list provides resources for situating the simultaneous manifestations of antiblackness and assault on Black life in the present. We are specifically motivated by the murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, by police officers; the attack on the AP African American Studies course in Florida; and what might be interpreted as the capitulation of the College Board to the demands of Florida’s Republican Governor. These convergent events serve as poignant reminders of the pervasiveness of anti-blackness, the everyday reality of gratuitous police violence, and the regressive nature of a politics of compromise that demurs to white supremacy, historical amnesia, and the sanitizing of Black social and political movements.

This bibliography is divided into four sections. The first provides a primer on the long struggle for Black life in Memphis. The second contextualizes the function of the police, to show how what happened to Mr. Nichols is possible even when the officers committing the violence are Black. The  section shows why abolition is an imperative of the struggle for Black life. The third section deals with the ethics and care guiding Black mourning and hope amidst the death dealing of antiblack violence. The fourth and final section is concerned with the indispensability of Black Studies to American Studies, national memory, and the radically transformative potential of critical study. 

In addition to this syllabus, we encourage readers to consult the American Association of Geographers statements “On the Structural and Spatial Forces that Contribute to Police Brutality” and on “the targeting of diversity education and critical inquiry by U.S. States”.

Memphis Black History and Geographies

Police, State Violence, and The Imperative of Abolition

Black Mourning, Care, and Hope

The Radical Promise of Black Studies beyond the AP African American Studies

Download the Syllabus

Joe Tuccillo

Spring colloquium on Feb. 2, 2023

Spring colloquium on Feb. 2, 2023

Joe Tuccillo

UrbanPop: A Spatial Microsimulation Framework for Exploring Demographic Influences on Human Dynamics

Speaker: Joe Tuccillo, PhD, Geospatial Science and Human Security Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

DATE: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2023 | TIME: 4:05-5:20 PM

AUDITORIUM: NURSING EDUCATION BUILDING (NEB) 302 (OPEN TO THE PUBLIC)

Abstract: Human dynamics models, which address how people live, move, and interact, are critical to promote effective and equitable public service delivery, develop policy interventions, and provide responses to natural and technological hazards at the neighborhood and community scales. The UrbanPop spatial microsimulation framework developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) supports human dynamics modeling by generating high-fidelity representations of individual demographics during the nighttime and daytime using synthetic populations derived from public-use American Community Survey (ACS) data.

In this talk, Dr. Tuccillo will provide a survey of research highlights from various applications of UrbanPop, including estimating social vulnerability, understanding healthcare access among underserved populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, and assessing environmental justice issues related to urban extreme heat events. Additionally, Dr. Tuccillo will discuss efforts to develop Likeness, a new Python software stack for UrbanPop designed to increase the framework’s reproducibility for a variety of research aims, as well as expand modeling capabilities to real-world transportation networks and building occupancy characteristics.

Colloquium Flyer (PDF)

LaToya Eaves

Eaves Named AAG 2023 Fellow

Eaves Named AAG 2023 Fellow

LaToya Eaves, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Sustainability, was named a 2023 Fellow of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). Eaves is one of 16 geographers in a variety of practice areas recognized for their contributions to geographic research, advancement of practice, and careers devoted to strengthening the field of geography, including teaching and mentoring. The honorary title of AAG Fellow is conferred for life.

Her research interest is at the intersections of race, gender, diaspora, critical geography and queer studies. Eaves explores the geographic imaginaries of Blackness, gender, and queerness by bringing critical approaches to the social transformation of places, the nuances of region, and lived experiences under rights-based progress narratives. 

Her research has been published in Geoforum, Dialogues in Human Geography, Gender, Place & Culture, The Professional Geographer, and Journal of Geography in Higher Education, among other journals and edited volumes. 

She has received numerous accolades within geography, including but not limited to the UT Department of Geography’s Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award, Academic Advancement Award by the Tennessee LGBT+ College Conference, the Ronald F. Abler Distinguished Service Honors by the AAG, and the Enhancing Diversity Award by the AAG.

AAG Fellows serve the AAG as an august body to address, contribute to, and at times create initiatives to advance the discipline. Fellows also advise AAG on strategic directions and challenges, and mentor early- and mid-career faculty. The Fellows will be formally recognized in March at the AAG 2023 annual meeting.

Contributions to the Field of Geography

Eaves has established a record of transformative research, dynamic teaching, and dedicated mentoring in the field of geography. Her contributions to the fields of Black Geographies, Black feminism, queer geographies, and the US South are particularly noteworthy. Eaves’s rigorous and accessible scholarship pushes geography as a discipline to engage with the importance of Black geographic thought and practices in the production of space and place. Her scholarship provides accessible entry points for students to engage with Black Geographies, and she has contributed foundational texts for scholars doing work within Black Geographies literature.

One of the founders of the Black Geographies Specialty Group, Eaves’s organization and caring mentorship has transformed the discipline of geography and provided a space and academic home for Black scholars and scholars of Black Geographies. She is a generous and caring mentor as well. Her reputation within the geography community broadly and within the Black Geographies community specifically speaks to her generous mentorship of students and junior scholars, much of which is invisible, uncompensated, and unrecognized work in institutional settings. She has been committed to recognizing and honoring senior Black scholars, organizing panels, special issues of journals, and award applications to assure that these senior scholars are recognized for their foundational contributions.  

Beyond the subfield of Black Geographies, Eaves has served the AAG in the roles of national councilor, treasurer and chair of the Finance Committee. She also contributed to the AAG Harassment Free Task Force and the AAG Task Force on Diversifying the Curriculum in Geography, and she co-chaired the AAG New Orleans Featured Theme Committee. She has served as an editor for Dialogues in Human Geography and on numerous editorial boards.

Background information republished from the AAG website.

Liem Tran

Tran, Alderman Honored by College

Tran, Alderman Honored by College

Liem Tran
Liem Tran

Liem Tran, professor of geography, received a Faculty Academic Outreach Research Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. The award recognizes extraordinary contributions of faculty to the public that occur as an outgrowth of academic pursuits and are related to the university’s academic mission. It recognizes faculty whose research and creative activities advance knowledge through the pursuit of their scholarly interests while simultaneously addressing community problems and issues and benefiting the scholar, the discipline, the university, and society. 

Tran conducts research built on creating strategic collaborative networks with government agencies, major research labs, and other community stakeholders and leveraging innovative geospatial analysis. A number of Tran’s measures and spatial models are widely used by the EPA across the US. Recently, he has collaborated with the EPA to develop the EnviroAtlas, an interactive web-based platform used by states, communities, and citizens that provides geospatial data, easy-to-use tools, and other resources related to ecosystem services, their chemical and nonchemical stressors, and human health. Tran has used his expertise in geospatial analysis to develop a series transmission models posted on the Tennessee State Data Center’s COVID-19 dashboard that estimates coronavirus reproduction rates and hotspots in the state. 

Tran is also actively involved in meaningful public communication of science. For example, he has interacted with the media to explain the metrics to measure the spread of COVID-19 and authored a policy brief in partnership with the Baker Center to educate the public on COVID-19 modeling and forecasts. Well before engaging in important research outreach to COVID-19, Tran had begun focusing on state of the art geospatial technologies, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and web-based applications, to combat the opioid crisis. 

“The award is very important not only to myself, but also to my students and colleagues who have been working diligently alongside me in various research outreach activities,” Tran said. “It shows the commitment of faculty and students in the geography department to serve the great state of Tennessee and its people, especially during this difficult time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Derek Alderman
Dr. Alderman

Derek Alderman, professor of geography, received the Lorayne W. Lester Award, which recognizes a faculty member or exempt staff member who has demonstrated outstanding service through research, outreach, and/or administrative, teaching, or advising services to the college, the state, our local community, or beyond. 

Alderman joined the geography department in 2012 as head and worked hard to advertise and modernize the curriculum for undergraduates, which allowed the department to increase in size dramatically. During his five years as head, he also worked successfully to diversify the faculty and student population. During these years he was also elected president of the American Association of Geographers, after successfully serving as a chair of the association’s publications committee, the regional southeast councilor, and president of the southeast region. 

Alderman’s research brings him many opportunities to inform the public about issues related to American Civil Rights movement and southern culture more broadly. Much of his work focuses on the histories, memory-work, commemorative activism, and place-making efforts of African Americans as they assert and claim civil rights, their right to belong with public spaces, and the power to remember the past and shape the American landscape on their own terms. In particular, his interests focus on critical place name studies and using cultural struggles over the naming and renaming of streets, schools, parks, and other public spaces as important lens for understanding the unresolved place of race, memory, and identity in America. 

“I am grateful and humbled to receive the Lorayne Lester award from our college, which is filled with many inspiring servant-leaders,” Alderman said. “Since coming to UT in 2012, I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with others to grow and maintain departmental health, advocate for national professional organizations, and engage in public outreach and partnership building. Service, for me, is about being responsive to the needs and well-being of other people—to think and act beyond oneself. More than simply a category of annual evaluation, service is the lifeblood of the university and key to the ethics of care we owe to ourselves and wider communities.”

He is a devoted scholar-teacher who enjoys working and publishing with students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He is also committed to conducting critical public scholarship that engages, informs, and helps the news media, government officials, community activists and organizations, and the broader citizenry. Most recently, Alderman has been involved in three major research efforts funded by NSF that involved researchers from universities across the country collecting and analyzing data related to the struggle for freedom from several different perspectives. He continues to serve beyond expectations by agreeing to step back into the role of interim head for geography this year when there was a last minute change within the unit leadership.

Kelly Baar

Engaging Undergraduate Students

Engaging Undergraduate Students

Our alumni continue to find exciting ways to keep engaged with current students. In the middle of the pandemic, a small group of alumni were looking for ways to support current and recently graduating students at a time when the economy was suffering, so they created an alumni group on LinkedIn to build connections between the two groups.

Founding members are Hannah Gunderman (’18), Adam Alsamadisi (’15, ’19), Kelly Baar (’19), and Morgan Steckler (’20). Join the group by searching for “UTK Geography Alum” on LinkedIn. (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12468218/).  

Kelly Baar, ’19

“When you go on a tour of UT, one phrase really hits home: Tennessee is a big campus with a small community feel. This could not be truer than as a student in the geography department, which serves as a home away from home. It offers opportunities in research, leadership, and networking. It encourages students to excel academically and gives students the resources to do so. It houses a safe space for students to study, create friendships, and host events. We felt like everything this department works so hard to create shouldn’t end at graduation so, we created the LinkedIn group. Originally, the group was to house a space for students to transition to alumni with the help of other graduates. Now, it is actively used as a way to recognize alumni accomplishments, provide support for recent graduates, and networking. As membership grows, we hope to continue to foster meaningful conversations amongst UT geography alumni.”

–Kelly Baar

In addition to the LinkedIn group, alumni connect with our students through a capstone course, Geography 499: Practicing Geography. More than 30 alumni volunteered to serve as mentors during the fall 2021 semester. The goal of the program was to connect students and alumni to help share professional experiences and advice while building meaningful connections. 

Kelsey Roache
Kelsey Roche, ’23

“Being a mentor has been an invaluable experience,” said Kelly Baar, who graduated with a bachelor’s in geography in 2019. “I have thoroughly enjoyed giving back to a department that immensely shaped my experience as a student, and now continues to allow me to share my passion with likeminded people.”

Kelsey Roche will graduate this spring and is ready to explore her career options thanks to her experience with the program. Her mentor, Jeff Smith, is the regional business manager for Trimble Inc. and based in Florida. 

“I was lucky enough to be paired with a mentor to help me navigate the intimidating job-hunting world,” Kelsey said. “I have gained so much appreciation for Jeff as he’s helped me define my strengths as a future employee, strengthen my resume, written me a recommendation, and offered the help of his professional friends along my journey of finding a job out of college. Jeff has given me endless amounts of advice about the real world that I plan on taking with me beyond my professional life. He has not only made me prepared, but excited for the job-hunting experience. I couldn’t imagine being as ready as I am to start exploring my life after college without the help of my mentor.”

Bennett Meeks
Bennett Meeks, ’21

Bennett Meeks, who graduated in 2021 with a bachelor’s in geography, enjoyed the opportunity to get to know an alum during the program and speaks to her on a regular basis. 

“My mentor provides a wealth of knowledge,” Bennett said. “There is something special about getting advice from someone who has just gone through the same transitions as you – especially having it been so recently. The ability to speak with a friend in the professional field is also invaluable because I often get a lot of advice that is inferred and often overlooked, and I receive advice on the things that I have yet to do or have not done in my college experience and hear their perspective while learning from their ventures. As I started my new job this semester, my mentor was one of the first people to hear about it, and the advice she gave me was always spot on. I love the connection between my mentor and I, and I am really looking forward to doing the same for the next generation.”

If you are interested in being a mentor, contact Michael Camponovo, program coordinator, at mcampono@utk.edu.

Alex Webb

Alumni Spotlight 2022

Alumni Spotlight 2022

While a student in the geography department, Alex Webb (’20) took Professor Micheline van Riemsdijk’s age of migration course – a study abroad course in Oslo and London. The experience provided Webb with a broader perspective and ignited her passion for international education.

“Not only did this course lay the groundwork for my academic, and now personal, interest in international migration, but it also gave me the opportunity to experience places, people and ideas that were literally foreign to me,” Alex said. 

After finding her academic passion for international migration, Alex pursued research opportunities within the department, such as working for a graduate student and presenting at conferences to hone the skills she would need to earn a graduate degree. She followed her passion to the Netherlands where she earned a Master’s degree from Erasmus University. 

Alex lives in Rotterdam and works as a teaching assistant for the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Erasmus. She is working on converting her thesis into a policy brief focused on advocacy.

“In my free time, I am writing essays and op-eds about issues that I am passionate about, including international migration, refugee resettlement, politics, and gender,” said Alex, who received a scholarship to attend an Op-Ed Project workshop, which facilitates access to publishing opinion pieces for women and minority groups.

Emily Craig

Emily Craig (’19) serves as the sole GIS staff member for the East Tennessee Development District, fulfilling all the organization’s map and data related needs. In 2020, TDOT requested Emily take the lead in mapping the Cumberland Historic Byway for a Federal Highway Administration application seeking National Scenic Byway status. Her responsibilities included provision of a statewide reference map and nine inventory maps displaying scenic features along the byway. 

In 2021 the application was deemed a success. As a result, counties and cities located along the byway now have access to federal grant funding and national marketing through the National Scenic Byways and America’s Byways programs. 

“Seven of the eight counties are economically-distressed or at-risk, so access to these resources have the potential to make a large impact on the region in the future,” Emily said. “Also, thanks to the designation, Tennessee is fourth in the country for its number of nationally recognized scenic byways.”

Explore Emily’s storymap to learn more about the project.

Nikki Luke

Community Engagement and Outreach

Community Engagement and Outreach

Outreach and community engagement are key components to our curriculum in the department. Students have several opportunities to engage with our community while applying what they learn in the classroom to real-world situations. During the past year, students worked with the Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM), Adelante, and others to solve local problems with geography. 

Evictions Mapping

Professor Nikki Luke

On September 4, 2020, the CDC issued a nationwide moratorium on evictions and foreclosures due to non-payment to slow the spread of COVID-19. Despite this federal action, evictions continued in the Knox County Circuit Court. A small group of volunteers working with Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) responded to share information about the moratorium with tenants facing upcoming court dates. Adam Hughes, the SOCM East Tennessee community organizer, approached Nikki Luke, assistant professor of geography, to see if she could help. Luke worked with geography students Sam Myers-Miller and Maya Rao to map where evictions were occurring so SOCM could continue their outreach efforts. 

The moratorium ended in July 2021, but it was never a permanent solution to housing insecurity in Knoxville. Students and faculty in the geography department have continued to work with SOCM and the East Knoxville-based organization Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development (SEEED) to collect information about housing and energy access in Knoxville through a door-to-door survey in impacted neighborhoods. 

In the spring 2022 semester, students in GEOG 420 and GEOG 446 will continue this work to identify changes in the geographies and frequencies of eviction in Knoxville during the pandemic and analyze whether these changes might influence housing affordability for renters. This engaged research puts the methods of geography to use to support the objectives of community-based organizations while working to understand processes of urban change in Knoxville.

Impacts of Urban Renewal

To preserve, revitalize, and transform the urban communities of cities across America, the federal government passed Title I of the Housing Act in 1949 and Title III of the Housing Act in 1954. Although framed as a project for redevelopment and revitalization of downtown areas, urban renewal targeted African American communities for demolition. The goal was to clear the “blight and slums” of downtown areas in the form of large-scale clearance to make room for new infrastructure. These policies and actions became known nationwide as urban renewal.

Luke Brice

Luke Brice created an interactive map of what Knoxville looked like before the urban renewal policies removed a large history of Knoxville’s African American population and displaced them elsewhere.

“The effects of urban renewal are still felt today. People who lived through these policies still remember and share their experiences. Living memory allows us to understand the present landscape of our city today,” Luke said. “Urban renewal continues to affect the African American community in Knoxville today, not only by a broken and displaced community, but also through continuing urban clean-up legislation.”

According to Luke, urban renewal teaches us to look at society with a different eye.

“What looks like slum and blight to one group is the home and loved community of another,” Luke said. “Place and space are defined by those who live in it and shouldn’t be a target of those who don’t experience it.”

Learn more about his project and see an interactive story map.

Mapping the Migrant Journey

Geography students Maya Rao and Annie Liu spent the spring 2021 semester helping Meghan Conley, assistant professor of practice in the UT Department of Sociology, with an ArcGIS StoryMap project in collaboration with Adelante, a local immigration legal nonprofit, to look at the various impacts detention has on immigrants in Knox County. 

Sociology 433R is a research-based class, with students from different majors participating in and learning about participatory action research and its methods. Students began the semester working in teams researching the impacts detention has on different parts of life, including social, financial, physical, and mental. Each group wrote a paper that would then inform the next aspect of the research project.

“I looked at the physical impacts of detention by researching the locations of detention facilities and discovered that many detention facilities are built on toxic superfund sites,” Maya said.

Annie was on the financial impacts team and looked at the negative effects that detention has on family finances of the detained. 

“We also examined the economic reasons behind the detention and deportation machine and found that the immigration landscape of this country is extremely profit-driven and commodified, thus leading to the dehumanization of immigrants,” Annie said. 

Next, students conducted interviews with different people involved in the detention process. Maya interviewed a local Knox County Schools teacher who has experiences with students who have parents who have gone through the detention process and has seen firsthand the trauma that those experiences can have on students. Annie talked to Hammad Sheikh Esq. and discussed what the detention process looked like from an immigration attorney’s perspective. He also spoke about the impact that COVID was having on detainees’ health and safety. 

Students also interviewed immigrants who went through the detention and deportation proceedings that the local Knox county sheriff’s office enforces in conjunction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Maya and Annie worked together on creating content for the final product – an ArcGIS StoryMap. They created maps using different features, such as the drive time analysis to see the distance detainees travel when going through the various checkpoints in the United States. Maya found data from migration policy and the American Community Survey to create a countries of origin map to show the some of the demographic data of undocumented immigrants in Tennessee. Annie found local news sources that helped to give context to the issues they were mapping.

Ultimately, they mapped out the journey that the interviewees went through during their immigration experience.

“Our goal was to show just how unjust and traumatic these experiences are on the immigrant populations,” Maya said. 

 Their final step was presenting the project to Adelante, who were very proud of the finished product. 

 “I loved the experience,” Maya said. “It ignited my interest in community-based research, which I hope to study further. I especially enjoyed connecting my skills in GIS, passion for the environment, and curiosity in policy.”

 Annie loved the class as well, especially since she had the opportunity to work with Adelante again. 

 “I’ve worked with the group in the past to use GIS to visualize issues,” Annie said. “The experience in community-based research was super valuable and will be helpful as I pursue my interest in working with nonprofits.”

 Learn more and see their map online.

Black Voters Matter demonstrators march during a voting rights rally on June 19, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images, Image from article in The Conversation

Alderman Published in The Conversation

Alderman Published in The Conversation

How a 2013 US Supreme Court ruling enabled states to enact election laws without federal approval

Terry Hubbard, a former felon, voted in the 2020 presidential election and was arrested two years later in Florida on voter fraud charges.
Josh Ritchie for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Joshua F.J. Inwood, Penn State and Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee

Since 2019, legislators and election officials in Florida have revised, passed and enforced restrictive voting laws that make it harder for poor people, former felons and people of color – who traditionally favor Democrats in elections – to vote.

At the same time, they appear to have taken exceptional measures that have made it easier for voters in Republican areas of the state to cast their ballots, especially after a natural disaster.

The pattern of favoring GOP voters and discriminating against people of color, especially against Blacks, has been so obvious that, in a brief filed in federal court on Aug. 17, 2022, federal prosecutors argued that Republicans lawmakers targeted Black voters when they enacted the new election law in Florida, a charge denied by lawyers defending the state.

Yet less than a week after the filing, instead of addressing widespread concerns over the restriction of voting rights, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference to show how his state is taking “voter fraud” seriously.

Despite the lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud, DeSantis told the assembled media that the state’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security was in the process of arresting 20 Florida residents for allegedly committing voting fraud.

Based on media reports, the majority of those pursued by authorities were Black voters.

Although a judge dismissed charges filed against one man, we believe these arrests are a bellwether of more efforts Americans will likely see to intimidate voters under the guise of election security.

The question, then, is how are states allowed to enact election laws that appear race neutral – but have a disproportionate impact on voters who have been historically disenfranchised?

Impact of Shelby v. Holder

We are scholars of the American civil rights movement and the role of geography and voter intimidation in the long struggle for Black voting rights.

The actions in Florida are part of a national trend that saw dozens of states across the country overhaul their election laws after former President Donald Trump’s persistent and false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

A white man dressed in a business suit stands with outstretched arms behind a lectern that has a sign bearing the words Election Integrity.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announces on Oct. 18, 2022, that the state’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security is in the process of arresting 20 individuals for voter fraud.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The rash of new state election laws includes everything from closing polling places to restricting the time and place of early voting. They also include partial bans on providing water and food to people standing in line to vote.

Not all of these laws included restrictions, and some were established to avoid health risks during the COVID pandemic.

These bills were often couched in the language of preventing voter fraud to protect democracy. “Voter confidence in the integrity of our elections is essential to maintaining a democratic form of government,” said Florida’s Republican Senate president, Wilton Simpson.

But voting rights experts argue that instead of prohibiting election fraud, many of the new laws may make it harder for people to vote.

In the past, the 1965 Voting Rights Act included requirements that, in states that historically had discriminated against the right of Black people to vote, such major changes to election law would have sparked a review by the U.S. Department of Justice to determine whether they could take effect.

The loss of that federal oversight was made possible by a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision in the case of Shelby v. Holder. That decision eliminated the oversight requirements of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

From the outset of the Voting Rights Act, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia were required to have federal oversight in order to prohibit those states’ adopting discriminatory election laws.

In addition, several specific counties in Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho and North Carolina were also found to have discriminated in the past, thus requiring federal oversight.

New state election laws

These states, long under scrutiny by the federal government for discriminatory voting laws, were some of the first states to enact new and more restrictive voting regulations and rules after the 2013 Supreme Court ruling.

Yet these states were not the only ones to consider changing or enacting new election laws since the 2020 presidential election. In 2022 the effort to restrict the right to vote has accelerated.

Thirty-four bills currently are moving through 11 state legislatures to restrict access to the vote. In all, 39 states have considered over 390 restrictive bills, and these efforts affect minority voters most specifically.

Though the impact on voter turnout is an open question among election experts, one thing is clear – the number of polling places and voting drop boxes in communities of color has diminished since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

While inconsistent data reporting makes it difficult to determine the exact number and location of closed polling places, recent statistics suggest that since the 2013 ruling, at least 750 voting locations in Texas, 320 in Arizona, 240 in Georgia, 126 in Louisiana, 96 in Mississippi and 72 in Alabama have closed.

Modern-day poll tax

In all, over 1,600 polling places have closed across the U.S. since the Holder decision in 2013.

Recently, civil rights organizations, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, have pressed Mississippi for information on poll closures in the state to determine if new election laws there are having a detrimental impact on Black residents’ ability to vote.

According to the Mississippi Free Press, the state “does not provide an up-to-date, comprehensive list or database of voting precincts to the public,” as required by law.

These closings, often done with little notice or public accountability, have occurred across communities of varying racial and demographic characteristics.

What unites these places across the country are the increased burdens and costs they impose on voters of color, older voters, rural voters, voters with disabilities and poor working people in general.

In our view, the poll closings since the Holder decision have created significant financial costs for those least able to bear them. We see the long lines as more than an inconvenience – they are effectively a modern-day poll tax.

Scores of black demonstrators holding posters march to support black voting rights.
Black Voters Matter demonstrators march during a voting rights rally on June 19, 2021, in Jackson, Miss.
Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The poll tax was an amount of money each voter had to pay before being allowed to vote. After the Civil War, many Southern and Western states used the poll tax and other Jim Crow measures to keep poor and minority voters from being able to cast ballots.

The frequently exorbitant taxes were outlawed in 1964 by the the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Our research shows that democracy depends upon communities’ having equitable social and geographic access to voting places.

The new Florida election law was challenged in March 2022 by voting rights advocates, the League of Women Voters of Florida and the Florida NAACP. Though that case is under appeal – and restrictions were allowed to remain in place during the midterm election – Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker found in his lower court ruling that the Florida law placed restrictions on voters that were unconstitutional and discriminated against minority citizens.

“At some point, when the Florida Legislature passes law after law disproportionately burdening Black voters, this court can no longer accept that the effect is incidental,” Walker wrote.The Conversation

Joshua F.J. Inwood, Professor of Geography and Senior Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State and Derek H. Alderman, Professor of Geography, University of Tennessee

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

an illustration of geographers engaged in research surrounding a globe

Geographers Engage With The World

Request More Information

Support The Department