Aaron Malone

Geography PhD Theses Presentations

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 16:30:34 +0000

Geography PhD Theses Presentations Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/26/2019 - 10:30

April 26 is the last colloquium of the semester. It features three different graduating PhD students doing short presentations of their theses.

Spaces of Diaspora Policy
by Aaron Malone

This paper examines the transnational / translocal landscapes of migrant organizing and state diaspora policies. Examining early diaspora engagement practices, Smith and Guarnizo (1998) debated transnationalism from above and from below. With diaspora policies rapidly spreading, I examine what kinds of spaces are being created and how this transnationalism from above interacts with grassroots and informal patterns from below. I build from the critical development literature, which argues that participatory programs create “invited spaces” that mostly reinforce the status quo, in contrast to the rarer autonomous spaces of radical challenge or grassroots alternatives. Focusing on Mexico’s famous diaspora policy, the 3x1 Program, I go a step further to argue that the institutionalized interactions between the state, migrant organizations, and migrants have created a landscape of autonomous, invited, and “simulated” spaces – the final category recognizing that the financial resources made available through the diaspora program have motivated attempts to fabricate and falsify trans-local migrant organizations. These “phantom” or simulated migrant organizations further complicate the transnational landscape, raising important questions about participation, agency, and the dynamics between states and migrant organizations in the era of diaspora policy.

Land grabbing at the legal crux: Forced displacement and land restitution in Colombia
by Max Counter

Colombia’s armed conflict has entailed industrial-scale land theft, foreshadowing the Inter-American Court of Human Rights historic 2005 judicial designation of “land grabbing” as a human rights violation. “Land grabbing”, as the violent dispossession of rural, afro-descendent and indigenous populations’ land for agro-industrial and mining use, has served as a central heuristic for understanding Colombia’s armed conflict. Against this background, and focused on Colombia’s 2011 “Victims’ and Land Restitution Law”,this paper looks “beyond” land-grabbing in two facets. First, it examines land restitution as a means of undoing violent patterns of land grabbing. Secondly, it questions how violent patterns of displacement might be legally rectified without presupposing that those who currently own dispossessed land necessarily obtained property through land grabbing processes. Examining land restitution in Colombia’s Magdalena Medio, I detail the legal measures used to prosecute legacies of land grabbing, as well as the controversy arising when those powerful legal measures are trained upon relatively small, “good faith” owners of once-dispossessed land. This paper approaches land restitution as an important means of undoing violent patterns of land concentration, yet cautions against presupposing that all patterns of violent displacement can be understood through a land-grabbing analytic. Land may be dispossessed using overt, coercive violence or, following critical scholarship from Diana Ojeda and others, through subtle forms of “everyday dispossession” (despojo cotidiano). How land restitution programs detect and manage these distinctions bears upon post-conflict legal land regimes’ precarious capacity to either ameliorate, or potentially exacerbate, violent legacies of forced displacement.

Uneven State Territorialization: Governance, Inequality, and Survivance in Xinjiang, China
by Sarah Tynen

Ideological and material state power result in the experience of uneven state power that affects people’s lives, especially at the scale of the body, household, market, and neighborhood. State power is both repressive and uneven, as well as ideological and material, in working at the level of the neighborhood and everyday life. The strikingly visible aspects of Chinese state power in Xinjiang overlook the invisible and nefarious aspects of the everyday violence of the nation-state. I use long-term ethnographic fieldwork to study some of the more invisible aspects of state power at the scale of the body, home, and market, such as the community (shequ) bureaucracy and development discourses. In drawing on observations of tight state control, I ask the question: How does a government rule with coercion or consent, and how do people respond? In exploring this question, I provide a examples from Xinjiang to show how state building and dispossession occurs in China and the effects that this has on everyday life for ethnic minority and majority groups. Specifically, I look at the effects of state power, especially how the multiplicity and complexity of state power is experienced when it comes to people’s daily tasks. I examine how individuals create social space in heavily regulated and securitized state space. State control permeates people’s lives in disruptive ways, which shows the everyday violence of the cultural politics of the nation-state. Meanwhile, Uyghur cultural performances at scales of the body and household reflect affiliation with the Muslim world that disrupt the national Chinese imaginary and the false assumption of territorial control as an all-encompassing static container.

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American Association of Geographers Preview: Student Talks

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 22:46:23 +0000

American Association of Geographers Preview: Student Talks Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/06/2018 - 16:46

Four Geography graduate students will present a preview of the talks they will give at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) meeting in New Orleans April 10-14, 2018:

Sarah Tynen: State Territorialization through Bureaucratic Control: Authoritarian Governance at the Neighborhood Level in China

By building on the concept of territory as a contested social relation that challenges the state-society dichotomy, this paper explores state territorialization practices as crucial components in shaping everyday life. In particular, it asks: How do citizens experience state bureaucratic power at the neighborhood level in their everyday lives? What is the role of community participation in garnering regime legitimacy? The research draws on 24 months of ethnographic and interview data in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwest China. The findings show that the conflict between state control and social membership revolves around the negotiation for territorial control, especially when it comes to struggle for power over minority bodies in nationalist space.

Aaron Malone: Diaspora Bureaucracy? Formalizing emigrant engagement and the evolution of Mexico’s 3x1 Program

Recent decades have seen rapid growth of diaspora strategies – efforts by migrant-sending countries to engage their emigrants abroad, under the assumption they can contribute toward development goals. There has also been a formalization of diaspora engagement efforts and the emergence of new agencies and programs. I examine how the formalization and bureaucratization of diaspora-state engagement has influenced relations between migrants, migrant organizations, sending communities, and sending-area governments. I focus on the example of Mexico’s 3x1 Program, a matching grant scheme through which the Mexican government partners with migrant organizations to build infrastructure in migrants’ hometowns. The 3x1 Program’s institutionalization has created gaps between policy and practice, yielding numerous unintended consequences. I show how these issues emerged across multiple levels. Most fundamentally, the basic assumptions built into the policy model romanticize migrant organizations and create unrealistic expectations for their involvement. Secondly, the mechanics of program operations also create mismatches between mandated processes and practical limitations the stakeholder groups face. These problems are known to officials, yet change to the program has been minimal over its fifteen years of operation. The contradictions and issues in the functioning of the 3x1 Program provide insights into Mexico’s relationship to its diaspora. Though presented as a community development program, the practical goals seem to center on a ceremonial embrace of migrants and a strategic strengthening of hometown-focused migrant organizations abroad, while the actual development projects are mostly left to hometown mayors and business-as-usual processes.

Joseph Tuccillo: Emergent Social Vulnerability: Linking Hazards of Place to Individual Vulnerabilities

Within the spatial sciences, social vulnerability--or the potential for individuals, groups, or households to be harmed by a hazard event or disturbance--is often viewed as a place based construct. It is assumed that the vulnerability of places (neighborhoods, cities) can be measured through aggregate characteristics linked to socioeconomic hardship. Yet measures of social vulnerability constructed from aggregate data mask understanding of how individuals are themselves vulnerable. While there is ample evidence that different places have different levels of social vulnerability, without attention to individual context, it is not at all clear how to efficiently translate aggregate-level vulnerability metrics into policy or operational response. We argue that social vulnerability emerges from the social interactive properties of place. If one could understand vulnerability from an individual level, one could craft policies that address the specific vulnerabilities of the people in a place whilst still accounting for the collective (area-level) concerns. Moreover, viewing vulnerability as an emergent construct allows us to target vulnerable individuals within affluent (less vulnerable) places. In this paper we develop a new way of thinking about vulnerability based on measuring vulnerability at the individual level (using survey responses from the US Census), statistically geo-locating individuals to census tracts, then ranking tracts based on their composition of vulnerable individuals. Two test cases for Denver, Colorado and New York City are evaluated. We believe this method is a significant theoretical and methodological advance that enables new ways of incorporating data-intensive science into policy making and public sector operations.

Siddharth Menon: Kuccha-Pakka: Gender and the Materiality of Concrete in Rural India

Rural houses in the Kangra valley of Himachal Pradesh are undergoing rampant transformation from age-old kuccha ways of building using mud and bamboo, to contemporary pakka ways of building using concrete and steel. Is this change in material infrastructure of building understood equally by all household and community members? When is change in materiality of built space understood as a “gain” rather than a “loss” for rural communities in Kangra? My fieldwork in this region using participant observation and focus groups, reveal a unique gendered understanding of change in material infrastructure of built space. Furthermore, there seems to be an uneven spread to the incremental order of this change, altering some spaces first and some spaces much later. Are all spaces in a house treated equally by this material transformation from kaccha to pakka? Why do some spaces of a house remain kaccha much later than the rest? What does the materiality of this change tell us about the gendering of these spaces? By drawing on Harvey (2015) and the infrastructure turn, I hope to critically look at the process of transformation in material infrastructure of rural houses in District Kangra, Himachal Pradesh while focusing primarily on the gendered understanding of this process. I argue that it is the inherent materiality of this new pakka material infrastructure, particularly concrete, that provides us with a divergent understanding of this transformation while also affecting the spatial ordering of it.

Hosted by Colleen Reid

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Gilbert F. White Doctoral Award for 2017-2018

Anonymous — Wed, 10 May 2017 19:19:53 +0000

Gilbert F. White Doctoral Award for 2017-2018 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/10/2017 - 13:19 Kaitlin Fertaly , Aaron Malone

The Geography Department is pleased to announce that Kaitlin Fertaly and Aaron Malone have received the 2017-2018 Gilbert F. White Doctoral Award. This award provides support for one semester to a graduate student who is nearing completion of the PhD dissertation.

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Aaron Malone awarded Community Based Research Fellowship through CU Engage

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 03:20:01 +0000

Aaron Malone awarded Community Based Research Fellowship through CU Engage Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/29/2016 - 21:20

The Community Based Research fellowship through CU Engage supports a cohort of graduate students doing collaborative research with community partners for mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. Aaron will partner with the Denver Federation of Zacatecan Clubs for research titled: "Hometown associations and transnational engagement in Denver's Mexican immigrant community."

See more at CU Engage >

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Graduate Student Awards - Spring 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2016 02:59:27 +0000

Graduate Student Awards - Spring 2016 Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/09/2016 - 20:59

The Department of Geography, ��«��Ƶ congratulates the winners the following Graduate Student Awards. These awards were recognized at our Spring Commencement Ceremony on May 6, 2016.

Gilbert F. White Doctoral Fellowship for 2016-2017 - Theodore Barnhart and Yang Yang

Adam Kolff Memorial Research Fellowship for MA Students - Gretchen Lang and Adam Mahood

Jennifer Dinaburg Memorial Research Fellowship for PhD Students - Robert Andrus, Angela Cunningham, Shae Frydenlund, Alice Hill, Rupak Shrestha, and Alana Wilson

James A. and Jeanne B. DeSana Graduate Research Scholarship - Theodore Barnhart, Shae Frydenlund, Julia Guarino, Aaron Malone, Rupak Shrestha, Kristy Weber, and Qinghuan Zhang

Department of Geography Excellence in Graduate Teaching Awards - Johannes Uhl (Teaching Assistant (TA) Award) and Shae Frydenlund (Graduate Student Mentoring Award).

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Dinaburg Memorial Fellowships Awarded to 5 Grad Students

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 02:17:59 +0000

Dinaburg Memorial Fellowships Awarded to 5 Grad Students Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/01/2015 - 20:17

Congratulations to the 2015-2016 Jennifer Dinaburg Memorial Research Fellowship recipients: Katie Clifford, Lauren Gifford, Aaron Malone, Daniela Marini, and Meagan Todd.

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Aaron Malone Awarded CARTSS Graduate Fellowship

Anonymous — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 01:28:39 +0000

Aaron Malone Awarded CARTSS Graduate Fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/03/2015 - 19:28

Aaron was awarded a graduate fellowship from The Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences. This award will support his research project "Collective Remittances as Development: Evaluating institutionalization effects".

See The Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences for more information.

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Aaron Malone Receives Ray Hauser Award

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 03:47:45 +0000

Aaron Malone Receives Ray Hauser Award Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/14/2014 - 21:47

The Ray Hauser Award is offered through the Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant program. Ray Hauser was the first Chair of the Graduate School Advisory Council and held that position through the committeeâ€™s formative years. Only the highest ranked proposals are considered for the small number of named awards. Aaron will receive $2,000 to be used toward his research and educational expenses.

Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grants are sponsored by alumni and provide small grants for research at the master's or doctoral level.

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Aaron Malone Awarded Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 03:46:24 +0000

Aaron Malone Awarded Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/14/2014 - 21:46

Sponsored by the Social Science Research Council, the Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF) program supports graduate students in formulating effective doctoral dissertation research proposals that contribute to the development of interdisciplinary fields of study in the humanities and social sciences. The fellowship cycle includes spring and fall workshops designed and led by pairs of senior tenured faculty, which provide a framework for pre-dissertation research and guide proposal writing within the context of selected research fields. In the summer months, student fellows carry out exploratory field research on their topics to evaluate issues of feasibility and methods of investigation. Aaron was awarded a fellowship in the Development and Migration field.

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Beverly Sears Grants awarded to 3 Geography Students

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 03:11:59 +0000

Beverly Sears Grants awarded to 3 Geography Students Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/12/2014 - 21:11

Beverly Sears Graduate Student Research Grants for 2014-2015 have been awarded to Meredith DeBoom, Aaron Malone and Galen Murton. These grants are competitive awards sponsored by the Graduate School that support the research, scholarship and creative work of graduate students from all departments. All funding is provided by private donations.

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