Transforming the national body: choreopolitics and disability in contemporary Cambodian dance

This paper analyses how dance traces geographies of nation and national identity. Focusing on contemporary dance in Cambodia, particularly in relation to disability, it examines how some dancers are shifting the constitution of the national ‘body’. The paper extends geographical exchanges with dance studies by drawing upon the concept of choreopolitics and analysing how it produces variegated enactments of nationality. In the process, the paper works across different approaches to the study of nations and extends our understanding of how the nation is a performed entity

Reflecting on “Our Place”

This piece reflects on 'Our Place', a soundwalk created by theatre maker, Dr Bridget Keehan, whilst Artist in Resident in the Department of Geography at Swansea University. We reflect on the creative process and thinking behind 'Our Place' as a form of managed conversation that is constructed as a way of opening up commentary about creative practice and place, posing, questioning, deflecting and developing ideas from the soundwalk that we have discussed before – during – and since – the project

Holy Manna: How Old Harp Singing in East Tennessee is Surviving in a New Wilderness

This project explores the identity and sustainability of the shaped note singing tradition among the community of the Friends of the New Harp of Columbia. A pattern emerged in fieldwork of song ownership, songs that each member considered to be “theirs.” Songs of ownership intertwine with education, preservation, and mediation of multiple realities to provide a link between identity and preservation and between the past, present, and future. The community actively preserves their musical tradition through song ownership. The sustainability and survival of songs of ownership is emphasized in two ways: an emphasis on participation, not performance, and an emphasis on rudiment education. Participation and education are ways the old harp community is disrupting the current narrative that exists about mountain music and identity. This “end of the line” narrative of mountain music and identity is problematic because it distances the observer from the tradition, keeping it observed in the past instead of relevantly engaged in the present. A phenomenon of tune variation presented itself in the fieldwork. Hood’s bi-musicality model worked for basic acquisition of harp singing. However, due to the minutia of tune variations within the community, the fact that there is not creative agency to prove fluency per Hood, and the variations were not necessarily set systems but socially predicated variants, a companion model was needed to account for the variants within systems, especially the ones creating sub-cultures and communities. The term chosen for these variations is socio-musical variation

Creating a sense of place or simply a good parking space?:evolution of the historic town squares of Mississippi

Mississippi has a surprising amount and variety of town squares. The square provides a central, pedestrian civic space in the towns in which they are located. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the evolution of town squares in Mississippi. The method employed was historical research of primary sources that included historic photographs and Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. The photographs were examined using the The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties investigating such elements as vegetation, site furnishings, and circulation patterns. Canton, Holly Springs, and Lexington were chosen to be studied in more detail to give a clearer picture of how squares have changed over time. It was determined that there are approximately 69 towns with squares in Mississippi. The most numerous types of squares used are Shelbyville squares. The vitality of the square varies greatly from town to town