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Rebecca Kinney (Bowling Green State University)
February 17, 2021 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
*All Winter 2021 Design@Large talks will be hosted online. This aligns with UC San Diego policy that all events be hosted virtual during the Winter 2021 quarter.
Rust Belt Chinatowns from Slum to Ethnic Enclave: The Enduring Legacy of White Supremacist Spacial Logics
In this talk Dr. Kinney will historicize the enduring legacy of white supremacist spatial logics that constituted the development of American cities in the 19 th and 20 th centuries and undergird plans for 21st century redevelopment. By examining specific historical manifestations of regional racial formation and urban planning in Detroit and Cleveland we see the persistent processes of anti-black and anti-immigrant ideologies in the willful creation of place in the formation of the 20th century “slum” and the 21st century “ethnic enclave.” Finally, the talk will conclude by presenting Asian American community-led placekeeping strategies currently underway in Cleveland’s AsiaTown.
About the Speaker
Rebecca Jo Kinney is an interdisciplinary teacher and scholar of Critical Ethnic Studies, American Studies, and qualitative research methods, at Bowling Green State University. Dr. Kinney’s book, Beautiful Wasteland: The Rise of Detroit as America’s Postindustrial Frontier argues that contemporary stories told about Detroit’s potential for rise enable the erasure of white supremacist systems in both the past and present. Her work has appeared in American Quarterly, Radical History Review, and Race & Class, among other journals. Dr. Kinney is currently working on an ethnographic project that analyzes the heterogenous desires and discourses of Asian American stakeholders spearheading development in the Rust Belt.
About Design@Large
Design@Large is a speaker series that is hosted by The Design Lab at UCSD, where each quarter we examine a topic in society and the relevance and implications through the lens of human centered design.
Co-hosted by Elizabeth Eikey and Edward Wang and developed in partnership with Carrie Sawyer, Design@Large this quarter (and next) is focused on racism in the design of everyday things across a range of topics, such as artificial intelligence, linguistics, education, and more. Each topic area will help shed light on the historical context of racism and the consequences of “designing” without understanding racism’s deep roots, as well as provide examples of anti-racist and equitable approaches in practice. Too often we want to jump straight to action, but without building our capacity to understand racism (and other “isms”) and critically evaluating its impact, we perpetuate racism and inequality – even with the best intentions. Through an exciting lineup of speakers, this series begins to make connections between history and designing and aims to promote awareness around the lifelong practice of anti-racist work across a variety of interconnected domains.