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Call for Panelists:
Geographies of Closed Doors: Methodologies for Interrogating Security, the State, and Spatialities of Power
Organizers: Lauren Martin & Stephanie Simon, University of Kentucky
Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, NV
March 22-29, 2009
Studies of "security" have charted a proliferation of techniques, technologies, and practices through which states—and increasingly private entities—surveil, sort, and police. Countering the "networks" of terrorism, state security practices have attempted to become networked, unpredictable, and flexible themselves. From "designing in" security functions to midnight immigration raids, the practices included under the rubric of "security" are diffuse and include a range of state and non-state entities. Yet while we find "security" concerns in an increasing number of everyday spaces, the institutions and persons behind them are increasingly obscure. Fears that studying security practices will enable terrorist attacks make public officials hesitant to release information to researchers, which constrains our ability to explore and understand the ways in which spaces are being transformed. Ordinary geographic research practices, such as taking photographs in public places, are questioned by security personnel, and documentation of security practices is difficult to access. Where access to prisons has long been granted, access to immigration detention centers require federal background checks and can be revoked without explanation. Thus, gaining access to research sites has its own bureaucratic life, and offers critical moment in which to trace the contours of the security that surrounds "security." This session will explore these changing dynamics of access and denial to those researching security and state institutions and practices. In addition we would like to extend this conversation to theorize the spatialities of power that emerge from research exploring sensitive topics.
The questions guiding this session include:
-What are the political and ethical implications of research becoming (or being perceived as) a "security risk?"
-What tactics and methodological approaches help us overcome the closed doors security and state institutions, personnel, and practices?
-How are our findings and claims curtailed (or enabled) by the surveillance of our research
-What does it mean for our theories of power, the state, and governance that researchers are routinely denied access to documentation, personnel, and sites?
-What are the implications of asking questions we have difficulty answering empirically?
-What do reprisals, detentions, and policing of research activities mean for us?
-How do these experiences show us spatialities of power we wouldn't have otherwise seen?
We invite papers (5-10 min.) from any location, context, or methodological approach. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words to Lauren Martin (Lauren.martin[at]uky.edu) and Stephanie Simon (Stephanie.simon[at]uky.edu) by October 10, 2008.