From Spatializing Culture to Social Justice and Public Space with Setha Low

In this presentation, Setha Low will trace her journey from the ethnographic study of the Latin American plaza and the development of the theory of spatializing culture to becoming a public space and social justice activist. She'll concentrate on the methodologies and research experiences that transformed her professional practices and the theoretical insights along the way and will conclude with a brief presentation of the Toolkit for the Ethnographic Study of Space that brings together all of these themes.

This event is part of a special eight-session event series hosted by professor Julian Agyeman and Cities@Tufts and sponsored by Tufts University and The Kresge Foundation with media partner Shareable.net.

2021 Spring Cities@Tufts Colloquium Series

Feb 3 – Isabelle Anguelovski: Green Privilege to Green Supremacy

Feb 10 – Jayne Engle: Sacred Civics

Feb 17 – Greg Watson: Organizing for Food Sovereignty

March 3 – Setha Low: From Spatializing Culture to Social Justice

March 10 – Jay Pitter: Exploring the Invisible Woman

March 31 – Anne Beamish: The Garden in the Street

April 7 – Sheila Foster: Co-Cities

April 14 – SPA presents Kurt Kohlstedt (99% Invisible Podcast): The Past, Present, and Future State of Cities

More information can be found here: www.citiesattufts.com/colloquium-series-2021

Limited space is available. Pre-registration is highly encouraged.

The speaker:

Professor Setha Low is a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Psychology, Geography, Anthropology, and Women’s Studies, and Director of the Public Space Research Group at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. She received her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and currently trains Ph.D. students in the anthropology of space and place, urban anthropology, the politics of public space, the social production of the built environment affect and emotion, and anthropology of the body. She has been awarded a Getty Fellowship, an NEH fellowship, a Fulbright Senior Fellowship, a Future of Places Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship for her ethnographic research on public space in Latin America and the United States. Setha is widely published and internationally recognized and translated for her award-winning books on public space and cultural diversity. Her most recent publications are Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place (2017), Anthropology and the City (2019), and Spaces of Security (with M. Maguire) (2019). This spring (2019) she undertook staff training on public space and social justice at UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya, and lectured on the public space and civic life at the Strelka Institute in Moscow, Russia. Her commitment is to both research and engagement to create a more just and inclusive city.

The Series Hosts:

Cities@Tufts is a cross-disciplinary academic initiative that recognizes Tufts University as a leader in urban studies, urban planning, and sustainability issues. Anchored by the department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, it aims to highlight our impressive contributions in community strategy, civic democracy, ethnographic research, urban and community health, food justice and security, urban politics and economics, social inequalities, and GIS. Cities@Tufts works with students, academics, policymakers and planners, businesses and community stakeholders to develop cross-disciplinary and cross-sector collaborative and community-based research. We aim to develop solutions to today’s urban challenges and opportunities based not on presupposed notions but on being critical: first asking the right questions.

Shareable is an award-winning nonprofit media outlet, action network, and consultancy. Our mission is to empower communities to share for a more resilient, equitable, and joyful world. We inspire social change by publishing solutions-based journalism, running campaigns, and helping our consulting clients achieve their goals through sharing. For more information visit shareable.net.

The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information visit kresge.org.