Memory and the re-invention of place: The legacies of environmental justice in Warren County, North Carolina

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Vasudevan, Pavithra
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography

Abstract

This thesis examines how toxicity is interwoven with structural racism to create a complicated historical legacy for residents of Warren County, North Carolina. Sept. 15th, 2012 marked the 30th anniversary of Warren County's historic protests against a toxic landfill. I explore how Warren County residents seek to reclaim their legacy as the `birthplace of environmental justice' and re-create a sense of place through collective memory-making practices. Warren County's example reminds us that hope is an active and engaged process of transforming the material and cultural residues of the past to shape imaginaries for the future. Reflecting the political commitment of critical / performance ethnography, this thesis is offered in the spirit of a dialogue, bridging the flows of knowledge between theory and practice, community conversations and academic debates. My work builds upon three pools of theory: scholarship on power and knowledge; political ecologies of waste and toxicity; and memory studies.

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