Chris Fortney - PhD Student
I am a critical human geographer and PhD candidate (ABD) in the Critical Geographies Research Lab. Broadly, I'm interested in relationships between space, power, and resistance. More specifically, my research focuses on the everyday practice of resistance in urban public space. In my MA work at Miami University, I used ethnographic methods to take a critical look at how graffiti writers in Columbus, Ohio produce public space—and the power relationships involved. My PhD research at UVic builds on my MA work by using similar methods in asking how graffiti and street art impact efforts to produce and govern the “creative” city. Through my MA research, I sought to empirically ground a theoretical framework based on Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality. Similarly, in my PhD work I aim to empirically ground a theoretical framework I’ve developed around Foucauldian governmentality and anarchism.
Selected presentations
Fortney, C. 2016. "Imbricating Neoliberalisms." Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, session on "The Mont Pelerin Plague." San Francisco, California.
Fortney, C. 2016. "'Who Made You the Graffiti Police?': Graffiti, Public Space, and Resistance." Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, session on "Criminology and Geography: Order and Conflict in the Public Space." Tampa, Florida.