Whitson Gets Faculty Research and Creative Activity Award

Dr. Risa Whitson

Dr. Risa Whitson, Associate Professor of Geography, received the Center for International Studies Faculty Research and Creative Activity Award to fund her project titled “Embodied memories of displacement: Using participatory art and mapping for understanding and reconciliation in Colombia.”

This project focuses on the migration experiences of internally displaced women in the North Atlantic Region of Colombia.

Whitson traveled to Barranquilla, Colombia, in June 2019 to conduct research in collaboration with two faculty members at the Universidad del Norte, Dr. Nancy Regina Gomez Arrieta and Camilo Ernesto Perez Quintero.

The project involves a five-day workshop with 10 displaced women in the Atlántico Province of Colombia to explore embodied and gendered experiences of displacement.

This project engages in participatory and artistic methods, including photovoice, body mapping, and participatory video, to document, analyze, and communicate women’s narratives of displacement. In addition to disseminating the results of the research through academic articles, the visual products produced in collaboration with the participants will be exhibited in Fall 2019 at the Universidad del Norte.